Taiwan holds live-fire military drill after mainland China repeats threats against island

Name: Taiwanese president calls mainland China military exercises ‘irresponsible’ as PLA missiles fly
Uploaded: 2022-08-11T05:10:14.000Z
Duration: 4 min 45 s
Description: Taiwanese president calls mainland China military exercises ‘irresponsible’ as PLA missiles fly

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

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A Taiwanese soldier takes part in a military drill at an undisclosed location in Taiwan on August 8, 2022. Photo: Taiwan Military News Agency

Agence France-Presse

Published: 1:10pm, 11 Aug 2022

Taiwan’s army held another live-fire drill on Thursday after Beijing ended its largest-ever military exercises around the island, as it repeated its vow to bring the self-ruled island under its control.

Beijing has raged at a trip to Taiwan last week by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – the highest-ranking elected American official to visit in decades – staging days of air and sea drills around the island that raised tensions to their highest level in years.

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.

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Taiwanese president calls mainland China military exercises ‘irresponsible’ as PLA missiles fly

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.