The US has helped conduct a computer-simulated war-game that pitted Taiwan's military against invading Chinese forces, officials said yesterday.
About 60 US military experts and officers monitored the six-day exercise as part of the close military cooperation between the US and Taiwan, Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (
Lee didn't give details of the exercise, which ended Saturday.
According to a local newspaper, however, the game involved a Chinese missile attack while Taiwanese F-16 fighter jets fired US-made AIM-120 mid-range missiles at Chinese Su-30s.
The newspaper report added that the Americans trained Taiwanese officers to use the US-designed computer system in preparation for a joint US-Taiwan simulated war game next year.
This will be the first of its kind involving US troops in a simulated cross-strait conflict.
Beijing did not immediately respond to the latest exercise.
Meanwhile, Vice Minister of National Defense Tsai Ming-hsien (
"Peace in the Asian-Pacific region is not a matter of concern to Taiwan and the United States only," Tsai said. "Japan and other Asian countries are also concerned."
In related news, the military will hold annual exercises in August to test combat readiness in the face of what Lee said yesterday was a significantly higher likelihood China would use force to invade the country.
"The likelihood of using force against us has increased significantly," Lee, who took office last month, told reporters.
"In recent years, communist China has injected a large sum of money into its defense budget and is rapidly expanding its military," Lee said.
"It is likely to become a regional hegemon," he added.
The US has said China acquired more sophisticated missiles, satellite-disrupting lasers and underground facilities in an aggressive military build-up last year aimed at winning a possible conflict with Taiwan.
Lee called for support for an US$18 billion special budget to buy Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) anti-missile systems, submarines and anti-submarine aircraft.
He said he would resign if an arms package offered by US President George W. Bush in 2001 was rejected by the legislature.
Lee also said the air force will practice emergency landing on a freeway for the first time in 25 years.
The scenario of the drill is that Taiwan's airports may be destroyed should war break out with China, and that freeways may have to be used for emergency landings.
Lee said the drills would take place between late July and early August.
Several kilometers of the freeway have been repaired and a section will be shut down for half a day, defense ministry sources said.
Chief of the General Staff General Li Tien-yu (
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
RSS