Taiwan Civilians To Get Taste of Red Scare in Military Drills

Upcoming Taiwanese military drills intending to prepare for a Chinese invasion will feature a new sense of realism for millions of civilians — mobile data interruptions mimicking the chaos and communication disruption that would come in the event of a real-world attack.Authorities on the self-governing island will induce major mobile data and Internet slowdowns across 14 cities and provinces on a rolling basis over four days in August when the drills occur.Taiwan’s English-language national news agency, Focus Taiwan, reports that the slowdown will impact 17 million people — nearly three quarters of the island’s population.“We selected the regions with the highest mobile communication traffic for the first round,” said a director at the National Communications Commission, Liang Po-chou. “We will gradually expand to all counties and cities to strengthen nationwide communication resilience.”The Han Kuang annual military drills will last 10 days and nine nights. The scenario Taiwanese defense officials have created for the war game involves China using its own military drills as cover for an invasion. The final phase will simulate Chinese forces having landed on Taiwan’s beaches, breaching Taiwanese defenses, and advancing inland.According to the Taipei Times, it’s the first time that both military and civilian components have been integrated into one exercise. Local governments will activate their emergency operations centers, the newspaper reported. The exercise will include simulated evacuations, medical drills, weapons relocation, and converting civilian factories to military use.Taiwanese officials have warned the public well in advance to expect the data slowdowns between August 10 and August 13, but say phone calls, texts, and emergency alerts will not be impacted.“We firmly believe that being prepared makes us safer,” said the deputy director of the National Police Agency’s civil defense command center, Ho Tien-fan. “When all citizens possess this knowledge, we can demonstrate the resilient strength of Team Taiwan, Stronger Together.”The Taiwanese drills come amid planned killer drone purchases and other urgent preparations the island is making as Chinese premier Xi Jinping’s self-imposed 2027 deadline for his nation’s military to be capable of taking Taiwan by force creeps closer.It’s part of the increasingly fraught dynamic between an island that the communist Chinese government views as a wayward province and the nuclear armed superpower that looms right on Taiwan’s doorstep. Last week, the Chinese military held two days of live fire exercises in the Taiwan Strait, the waterway that separates China and Beijing by a mere 100 miles.Mobile data disruptions will occur not just in central and northern Taiwan, but also at a handful of outlying islands — including Kinmen, which is in visual range of China and thought to be one of the first pieces of territory the Chinese People’s Liberation Army would seize in the event of war.A war between China and Taiwan would likely draw in the United States, an ally that has agreed as part of the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 to help the Democratic nation with its defense. Every U.S. president since the late 1970s with the exception of President Biden has declined to say whether he would order the American military to defend the island.Mr. Biden repeatedly said that America would come to Taiwan’s aid if it was attacked by China. Mr. Trump demurred on his position in May.“I don’t want to say, I’m not going to say that,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “There’s only one person who knows that and you know who it is: me.”A $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan still awaits Mr. Trump’s final approval. That package includes F-16 fighter jets, Patriot defensive missile systems, torpedoes, and glide bombs.“We’re focused on Taiwan and its security,” Congressman Greg Meeks, a New York Democrat, told CNBC in May. “We’re willing to give them what they need to defend themselves.”“We have to support Taiwan,” Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said. “We should be bolstering it.”

Taiwan Civilians To Get Taste of Red Scare in Military Drills

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