Taiwan’s annual air-raid drills to simulate evacuations in event of PLA attack
- This year’s exercise will assess how well the island’s 22 local governments can evacuate their residents, defence ministry says
- Drills testing civilian preparedness will be held across the island later this month and come amid heightened tensions with Beijing
In addition to testing civilian preparedness, this year’s drills will also assess how well Taiwan’s 22 local governments carry out evacuations of residents and the procedures once they are at their nearest air-raid shelters, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.
Each local government will have to designate a neighbourhood – which could be a village, town, city or municipal district – for the evacuation exercise, according to Chu Sen-tsuen, personnel director at the defence ministry’s All-Out Defence Mobilisation Agency.
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“The air-raid drills will be held in turn in the northern part of Taiwan on July 24, the southern part on July 25, the eastern and outlying islands on July 26, and the central area on July 27,” Chu said.
Drills testing the preparedness of civilians will be held from 1.30pm to 2pm, and the evacuation exercise will run from 2pm to 2.30pm.
Everyone will be required to stay indoors and all traffic must stop when the air-raid sirens are activated. All individuals, government units, schools, organisations, companies and factories will be required to cooperate with relevant agencies during the evacuation drills.
“Anyone who fails to comply with the requirements will be subject to a fine of between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 [US$956 and US$4,780] in accordance with the civil defence law,” Chu said.
At the same news conference, Lin Kuo-hua, deputy director of the National Policy Agency’s civil defence control centre, said there were 5,475 air-raid shelters across Taiwan. They could accommodate 54.4 million people – more than double the island’s 23.5 million population, Lin said.
The air-raid drills will again coincide with the five-day annual Han Kuang military exercises that begin on July 24, testing the combat readiness of the island’s forces for an all-out attack by the PLA, the defence ministry said.
They will assess how well Taiwan’s military can intercept and strike back at PLA forces coming from sea, air and land, and will also put the civil defence force to the test in working with the military on homeland defence and disaster relief.
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The annual drills come amid heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan is under constant threat from Beijing, which sees the island as part of its territory and has vowed to bring it under its control – by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state but oppose any unilateral change in the cross-strait status quo by force.
The PLA has since then intensified its military activities around Taiwan, including sending warplanes over the median line that separates the island and mainland China in the Taiwan Strait. PLA aircraft and warships have also been seen close to eastern Taiwan, where defence capabilities are reportedly not as strong.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said 34 PLA warplanes were spotted near the island on Tuesday, and 29 of them crossed the median line to enter its air defence identification zone in both the southwest and southeast. It said four PLA ships were also involved in the operations. Taiwan’s military sent warplanes and ships to shadow the PLA and deployed its missile systems.
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Also on Tuesday, the island’s military denied media reports that Taiwan was developing biological weapons under US instruction, saying it would not do so because it would breach the international convention.
The military also refuted a claim by a New Taipei City councillor that the bulletproof vests worn by Taiwanese troops could be penetrated by regular machine gun and rifle cartridges used by the PLA.
Lin Ping-yu, of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, made the claim last week, saying tests conducted in the US had found the vests were not effective.
“I can’t … say for sure that our [vests] are 100 per cent bulletproof in the absence of using [PLA] firearms for testing,” said Yu Yu-tang, administration director of the Armaments Bureau.
But he said testing had shown the vests could resist penetration by a regular 7.62mm-calibre cartridge, which was more powerful than the 5.8mm-calibre cartridge commonly used by the PLA.
