Taiwan holds live-fire military drill after mainland China repeats threats against island
- Island’s army fires howitzers and target flares as part of defensive drill on Thursday morning
- It comes a day after Beijing publishes white paper declaring it reserves option of ‘all necessary measures’ to reunify
Taiwan has accused Beijing of using the Pelosi visit as an excuse to kick-start drills that would allow it to rehearse for an invasion.
Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for Taiwan’s Eighth Army Corps, told media its forces fired howitzers and target flares as part of the defensive drill on Thursday morning.
The exercise in Taiwan’s southernmost county of Pingtung began at 8.30am local time and lasted about an hour, he said.
Artillery tucked in from the coast was lined up side by side, with armed soldiers in units firing the howitzers out to sea one after the other, a live-stream showed.
Taiwan held a similar drill on Tuesday in Pingtung. Both included the deployment of hundreds of troops, the military said.
How Taiwan Strait drills shed light on some of Beijing’s tactics
The military has played down their significance, saying they were already scheduled and were not in response to the mainland’s war games.
“We have two goals for the drills, the first is to certify the proper condition of the artillery and their maintenance condition and the second is to confirm the results of last year,” Lou said, referring to annual drills.
But in the same announcement, mainland China added that it would “continue to carry out military training and prepare for war”.
In a separate white paper published on Wednesday, the mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Beijing would “not renounce the use of force” against the island and reserved “the option of taking all necessary measures”.
“We are ready to create vast space for peaceful reunification, but we will leave no room for separatist activities in any form,” it said in the paper.
What defence dialogues did Beijing cancel after Pelosi’s Taiwan trip?
Taiwan routinely stages military drills simulating defence against a PLA invasion, and last month practised repelling attacks from the sea in a “joint interception operation” as part of its largest annual exercises.
In response to the PLA revealing it was bringing drills to an end on Wednesday, Taiwan’s army said it would “adjust how we deploy our forces … without letting our guard down”.