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Lawrence Chung

Taiwan’s military will stage a drill at the island’s main international airport for the first time next month, practising defence of the facility in a cross-strait war.
The drill, to be held at Taoyuan International Airport south of Taipei on July 26, is part of the Han Kuang exercises – the island’s major annual war games.
It will be the first time the airport has been used for a military drill since it opened in 1979.
The drill will test the readiness of the island’s troops to repel an airborne assault, including forces parachuted in by the People’s Liberation Army, according to Taiwan’s defence ministry.
“Members of the Aviation and Special Forces Command and Army Airborne Special Forces will pose as the invading forces to be repelled by the ground troops,” a ministry official said on Thursday.
The official said the drill would last about an hour, with rehearsals on July 12 and 19.
The ministry had already notified the airport and relevant authorities of the exercise and the preparations, including closure of part of the airport and flight rescheduling.
Airport officials said flights would be suspended for two hours because the military needed time to prepare for the drill and the airport needed to manage the resumption of traffic.
“The north runway and part of the south runway will be closed down from 9am to 11am on July 26 and also on July 12 and 19,” an airport official said, adding air traffic control notices would be issued to all airlines for coordination and flight rearrangements.


As the facility was busy during the summer travel season, the official asked for understanding from customers.
“We have estimated that more than 65 flights and 4,000 travellers will be affected during the exercise on July 26,” the official said, adding this also applied to the two rehearsals on July 12 and 19.
The unprecedented inclusion of the airport – the island’s major gateway to the world – in the exercise was apparently the result of a proposal by a group of US experts following their observation of the Han Kuang Exercise last year, according to local news media.
Military experts said the drill was necessary because Taoyuan airport was just 3km (1.9 miles) from Zhuwei beach – one of the “red beaches” on the island that PLA forces could target for a landing and swift access to the island’s capital of Taipei.
In his 2017 book The Chinese Invasion Threat, Ian Easton says that while most of the island’s coastal regions would present serious challenges, 14 of these beaches would likely allow potential enemies to establish a beachhead.
Shuai Hua-min, a retired army lieutenant general, said: “If the Chinese communists choose to land at Zhuwei beach, they definitely will push their forces further north to take over Taoyuan airport so that they can transport troops and weapons to Taiwan.”
He said the PLA would need the airport to support its air-sea-surface operations, involving the navy’s amphibious force and landing craft and its air force’s paratroopers.
Shuai said that from the airport, the PLA could send forces to attack Taipei in less than an hour.


Shu Hsiao-huang, an analyst of the Institute for National Defence and Security Research, a government-funded think tank in Taipei, said that if the PLA intended to attack Taiwan, it would not destroy all of the island’s air and sea ports because it would need continuous supplies and troops for its operations.
“Capturing Taoyuan airport thus became an important mission for the PLA,” he said, adding that was why the island’s military needed to familiarise itself with the airport.
He said the Taiwanese military was not familiar with the airport all because it had never staged any anti-airborne and anti-takeover drills at the facility.


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Following advice from US experts, drill will include mock attack on Taoyuan International Airport.


China’s military