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Business Insider
4 days ago
- Politics
- Business Insider
Taiwan's forces are training to ride the subway into war if China invades
Taiwanese troops were seen on Monday carrying Stinger missiles and grenade launchers on Taipei's subway as they trained to fight off a Chinese invasion. Footage of the drill, part of the island's annual Han Kuang war games, was published by the Military News Agency. The outlet is run by Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense. Similarly, the US military also conducts combat training in tunnels and subway systems to prepare for urban warfare in megacities. However, the Taiwanese defense ministry's news branch wrote that its soldiers weren't just learning to fight on the subway, but also to "use underground facilities to transfer troops." Several clips showed dozens of heavily armed soldiers riding the subway, taking escalators, and leaving via ticket gantries before taking position away from the station. The training exercise involved soldiers of Taiwan's military police and Third Army Command, who toted anti-armor rockets and practiced tactical movement in subway cars and stations. Some soldiers were filmed driving forklifts to load ammunition and other gear onto service trains of the subway lines. Taiwan's national news agency, Central News Agency, reported that the exercise ran between the Shandao Temple Station and Longshan Temple Station. The stations are three stops apart, and the route goes through Taipei Main Station, a major interchange. Greater Taipei's urban core, home to roughly 6.5 million people, is serviced by six main subway lines and a few extensions. Han Kuang, run for over 40 years, is focused on countering a Chinese invasion and also trains Taiwan's troops for contingencies if Beijing successfully lands its forces on the island. This year's exercise is Taiwan's largest in scale so far, running for 10 days and featuring a heavier emphasis on drills with civil forces and civilians to test the entire island's war readiness. Taiwanese troops on Saturday also deployed the American High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, which Taipei received last year, for the first time in the Han Kuang drills. All of this comes as Taipei's current government, known for resisting Beijing, grows increasingly concerned about emerging hostilities with mainland China. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has pledged to reunify the island under Beijing's control, and said his country would never renounce its right to use force to reach that goal.


Mint
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Mint
US Lawmakers' Talks With Top Taiwan Official Risks Irking China
A group of US lawmakers held a rare publicly disclosed meeting with Taiwan's top defense official, a discussion that risks spurring China to step up its military intimidation of the democracy. The delegation led by Ami Bera, a Democratic representative from California, met with Defense Minister Wellington Koo on Tuesday in Taipei, Taiwan's Military News Agency reported. Koo said Taiwan was a reliable partner for the US and was committed to strengthening its defensive capabilities, the report on Wednesday added. US President Donald Trump suggested while campaigning that Taipei increase its military spending. The meeting adds to events lately that Beijing is likely to perceive as provocative. On Tuesday, Beijing hit back at Taiwan for joining a yearslong US campaign to curtail China's technological ascent when it recently blacklisted the country's AI and chipmaking champions. And Bera and the other lawmakers met President Lai Ching-te on Monday. While such meetings are fairly common for US lawmakers, they still annoy Beijing because it opposes nations it has ties with from having official contact with Taiwan. China will also note that military officials from Taiwan attended exercises at a key US military base in Alaska last week. Also last week, retired military officials from Taiwan, Japan and the US reportedly attended a simulated 'tabletop exercise' in Taipei. A new round of Chinese exercises around Taiwan soon cannot be ruled out, said Lin Po-chou, assistant research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a government-affiliated think tank based in Taipei. 'China might also escalate the scale of the existing provocation of Taiwan, or express dissatisfaction through propaganda warfare or commentary in official media outlets,' he added. China views the archipelago of 23 million people as territory that must come under its control eventually, hopefully by peaceful means but by force if necessary. The People's Liberation Army has held an unprecedented amount of exercises around Taiwan since Lai took office a little more than a year ago. It has also flexed its naval might around Japan and also Australia. The latest developments come as China-US tensions cooled following trade talks in London last week. Taipei is also holding discussions with Washington to avoid getting hit with duties. While previous American delegations are likely to have had meetings with Taiwanese defense ministers, they usually aren't publicly disclosed. In 2021, a group visited the Defense Ministry in Taipei and was briefed on China's military threats. Reports at the time didn't say what Taiwanese military officials the lawmakers met. Taiwan's Defense Ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Jack Chen, director of Formosa Defense Vision, an advocacy group, said the announcement of the meeting between Koo and the US visitors 'showed that the military exchanges and cooperation between the US and Taiwan are becoming increasingly high profile and transparent, aligning with a long-term trend that began under the Biden administration and has continued into the Trump administration.' This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.