The Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP) yesterday slammed the annual Wanan air defense exercise as “just for show,” saying that only meaningful exercises would help increase the public’s survivability against the threat posed by China.
The party said that based on videos of the drill the party had recorded, there were multiple failings, such as using the National Police Agency’s mobile app, but ultimately failing to find a shelter.
All the presidential candidates and the Ministry of National Defense have said that the exercise should not be faked, yet the TSP found, after making videos of the exercises nationwide, that participants had failed to reach even the lowest standards in terms of performance, TSP Taipei chapter director Wu Hsin-tai (吳欣岱) said.
Photo: CNA
The government claims that there are more than 100,000 air raid shelters nationwide, but most of them are inaccessible, she said.
TSP Chairman Wang Hsing-huan (王興煥) said the party’s call for the government to emphasize the realism of the Wanan exercise has gone unheeded and they could hardly be called “preparation for war.”
He said how people in high-risk areas should be evacuated has also been passed over.
How organizations with first aid, gas masks and other materials should mobilize, as well as civil defense groups, were also not touched upon, he added.
Compared with Japan’s Yonaguni Island, which has started building shelters that could withstand missile strikes, Taiwan’s “shelters” are mostly the basements of apartment buildings and would be insufficient, Wang said.
He said that Taiwan must reinforce three mindsets — that China is the enemy, that war is not as distant as believed, and that people should sacrifice some of their freedoms and rights and cooperate with the government’s mobilization efforts.
He was critical of the government’s belief that such exercises would “disturb people” and said it was a petty excuse, as 19.2 percent of Taiwanese have said they are willing to mobilize to resist a Chinese invasion.
Wang also cited civilian defense classes held by the Kuma Academy, a non-profit organization focused on civil defense topics such as first aid and media literacy, which have been fully booked with a significant waiting list.
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