Taiwan drill to simulate China invasion

TAIPEI—Taiwan will conduct war games next week simulating the defense of the island against an attack by China, officials said Wednesday, in drills drawing on US military experience in the two Gulf wars.

The five-day drill beginning Monday will pit a marine brigade – acting as a mock enemy – against a motorized infantry brigade defending the island, the defense ministry said.

The marines will land in the southern Pingtung county and encounter the infantry in central Taiwan, it said.

Special combat units, supported with AH-1W SuperCobra attack helicopters and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters, will back up the infantry who will use a road as an improvised runway for air force fighter jets, it said.

“Such a tactic has been proved fruitful by the US forces during the two Gulf Wars,” Army Major General Hau Yi-chih told reporters.

Ties between Taipei and Beijing have improved markedly since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power in 2008 promising to boost trade links and allow more Chinese tourists to visit the island.

But Beijing still sees the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, even though Taiwan has governed itself since 1949 at the end of a civil war.

Ma, the sput to the diplomatic thaw with China, has said Taiwan was unlikely to engage in an arms race with its giant neighbor, but stressed the island still needed a small but powerful deterrent to the mainland’s military might.

Taiwanese experts estimate that China has more than 1,600 missiles aimed at the island and recently deployed a new type of ballistic missile despite improving ties.