The military is to conduct drills next week to prevent China sabotaging the nation’s submarine cables, a defense official said yesterday.
The anonymous source with knowledge of the matter made the comment after a Chinese cargo ship flying the flag of another nation was last month detained on suspicion of severing a cable between Taiwan proper and Penghu County.
Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) on Monday last week told reporters that Beijing might use military exercises to disguise a military buildup before an invasion attempt.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The armed forces would hold “immediate combat readiness exercises” in response to ceaseless “gray zone” harassment and to counter any threat posed by Chinese vessels, he said.
The military is to scale its reaction to match the perceived threat level of China’s activities, he said.
The armed forces are preparing to launch their first-ever immediate combat readiness exercise starting on Monday next week, the anonymous source said.
The armed forces would be put on high alert through the five-day drills, and the comprehensive exercise was planned as a warm-up for this year’s annual Han Kuang exercises, they said.
All parts of the military — including units not currently deployed in a defensive capacity — would take part in the exercise, they said.
This year’s Han Kuang exercises are to be the longest in the nation’s history.
The computer simulations would last 14 days, while the field exercise would take 10 consecutive days, it said.
“Gray zone” warfare and in-depth defense in a conflict would be featured in the scenarios, it said.
Separately, Air Force Commander Lieutenant Cheng Jung-feng (鄭榮豐) might later this month attend a ceremony in the US for the handover of the first of the nation’s long-awaited modernized F-16 jets, a source said.
The first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan purchased could be certified for delivery in the coming weeks at the earliest, an official with knowledge of the matter said on condition of anonymity.
Cheng is expected to attend the handover ceremony, they said.
The air force confirmed that one of its personnel would visit the US for the jet’s handover, without elaborating further.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS