Taiwan on Wednesday (July 9, 2025) launched annual military workouts meant to guard towards Chinese threats to invade, together with utilizing so-called “gray zone tactics” deployed by China that cease simply in need of open warfare.
This 12 months’s 10-day live-fire Han Guang drills are the longest but and observe the supply of a spread of latest weaponry from tanks to unmanned waterborne drones. The drills in Taiwan come as regional tensions and harassment by China and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are rising.
China claims Taiwan as its territory to be annexed by pressure if mandatory, whereas the overwhelming majority of Taiwanese want to develop into totally impartial or retain their present standing of de-facto independence.
“The drills began with exercises to counter the actions of Chinese Coast Guard and maritime militia ships that have been harassing Taiwanese ships around offshore island groups close to the Chinese coast,” the Defence Ministry stated. Concerns are that China may launch an invasion beneath the guise of petty harassment and the drills will embrace fortifying ports and potential Chinese touchdown factors on an island mendacity 160 km (100 miles) off the Chinese coast.
“The drills will later focus on simulated anti-landing exercises, with regular forces from all the services backed up by 22,000 reservists,” the Ministry stated. “Exercises will continue around the clock for 10 days under realistic conditions taking into account all possibilities,” the Ministry stated, in a potential try to counter criticisms that previous workouts have veered on the performative.
The Ministry known as on the general public to present endurance with any disruptions to flights or site visitors and never to imagine false data distributed in regards to the workouts. China responded to the workouts’ announcement in sometimes acerbic vogue.
“The Han Guang exercise is nothing but a bluffing and self-deceiving trick by the DPP authorities, attempting to bind the Taiwanese people to the Taiwan independence cart and harm Taiwan for the selfish interests of one party,” Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson Col. Jiang Bing stated at a information convention on Tuesday (July 8, 2025). The DPP stands for Taiwan’s independence-leading ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
“No matter how they perform or what weapons they use, they cannot resist the PLA’s anti-independence sword and the historical trend of the motherland’s inevitable reunification,” Mr. Jiang stated.
China seems additionally to have taken actions to disrupt preparations for the drills, with the Taiwanese Defence Ministry saying PLA planes and ships on Tuesday (July 8, 2025) “conducted harassment operations around Taiwan’s air and sea domains under the pretext of a so-called joint combat readiness patrol.’”
Taiwan’s armed forces “employed joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance measures to closely monitor the situation and dispatched mission aircraft, vessels, and shore-based missile systems to appropriately respond,” the Taiwanese Defence Ministry stated on Tuesday (July 8, 2025.)
