The Ministry of National Defense yesterday — a week after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) reasserted China’s right to use force against Taiwan — made public this year’s schedule of combat drills designed to boost the military’s readiness.
The annual exercises are divided into four components, Operations and Planning Division head Major General Yeh Kuo-hui (葉國輝) said.
A month of combat readiness training is to be held in the first quarter, the month-long Han Kuang live-fire exercise in the second quarter, joint anti-landing operations in the third quarter and joint anti-airborne exercises in the fourth quarter, Yeh said, without giving a more detailed timetable.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
The drills and training routines would incorporate newly adopted tactics for defending against a possible Chinese invasion, Yeh said.
Over the past few decades, the armed forces made beach invasions the focal point of any defensive strategy, but when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in May 2016, the plan for repelling a possible attack was broadened to include the outer perimeter of the nation’s coastal areas.
The military’s combat exercise schedule for this year was announced a week after Xi on Wednesday last week reissued a warning to Taiwan in an address marking the 40th anniversary of China’s “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan.”
In his speech, Xi said that China is willing to talk with any party in Taiwan to push forward the process of peaceful unification on the basis of the “one China” principle.
However, “we make no promise to renounce the use of force and reserve the option of taking all necessary means” to serve the end, Xi added.
Asked about Xi’s threat, military spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said the training and drills being conducted are intended to prepare the armed forces to counter a possible invasion.
“We want to assure citizens that the military is constantly improving its combat preparedness and stands ready to fight for the survival of the Republic of China,” he said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most