Taiwan Mobilises Forces To Thwart Chinese Invasion

Computer screens in front of them likely displayed the island nation's F-16 fighter jets taking to the skies, precision-guided cruise missiles blasting China’s west coast ports, and its Tuo Chiang-class corvettes, dubbed “aircraft carrier killers,” deployed to pick off high value targets in the Taiwan Strait.

But outside the gated compound all was quiet. Welcome to Taiwan's virtual war room, where decorated generals and officers this week are being tested against the most chilling scenarios – from a full-scale invasion to cyberattacks and blockades of critical infrastructure.

The highly classified annual “Han Kuang” military drills come under the shadow of very real threats from Taiwan's hostile superpower neighbour.

Recent months have seen an uptick in warmongering rhetoric from Beijing matched by intensifying air force and naval activity around the island 110 miles off the Chinese coast.

China’s Air Force has made sorties into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone on a near daily basis since last September, hitting a record high of 25 fighters, including nuclear capable bombers, on April 12.

The daily screech of jets has alarmed the United States and nearby Japan, prompting Washington to warn China it would be a “serious mistake” to take Taiwan by force.

While there are no signs of an imminent Chinese attack, China appears to be setting the stage to make good on a long-promised threat to annex the island, by force if necessary.

The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan - a democracy of 23 million, which functions like any other nation with its own government and military – but it claims the island as its own territory.

Military strategists warn Taiwan does not have the luxury of time to practice defending its shores.

China could invade within the next six years as Beijing rapidly steps up its challenge to American forces in the Indo-Pacific, Admiral Philip Davidson, the outgoing head of the US Indo-Pacific command predicted in March.

His warning is likely to weigh heavily on Taiwanese military chiefs over the eight-day Han Kuang war games, where computer simulations switch between mock threats of conventional beach landings and aerial assaults to electronic attacks and psychological warfare.






Source: Telegraph
Image Source: Getty Images