Taiwan’s capital performed air defence drills on Monday as the military prepared for the weeklong annual defence exercises.
In the early afternoon, Taipei’s streets came to a complete standstill as police ordered drivers to stop, shops to close their doors, and people to seek refuge indoors.
The annual Han Kuang military exercises, which will continue through July 29, will test Taiwan’s defence capabilities against China’s much larger and expanding armed forces.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington claims that for at least ten years, China’s military budget growth has outperformed the country’s overall economic growth.
As Russia continues to bomb Ukraine, worry for Taiwan’s security has grown, and Beijing’s hesitation to denounce the invasion hasn’t abated.
According to a Pew Research Center survey from April, the majority of Americans believe that the U.S. faces substantial issues as a result of the relations between China and Russia.
The live-fire drills this year are said to be based on a simulation of a war game that was held in May and was inspired by lessons learned from the Russia-Ukraine war, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.
The exercises are taking place as tensions with China are at an all-time high. Over the past year, Chinese military aircraft have made hundreds of incursions into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone.
The self-governing, democratic island of Taiwan is considered a province by the Chinese Communist Party, which wants to unify it with the mainland.
For the first time, reservists will be called up for the Han Kuang exercises, which were originally staged in 1984.
Taiwan raised its reservist training troops early this year to support its regular duty forces in the wake of rising Chinese military action on the island.
Chinese warplane incursions into its ADIZ have increased by 50% according to the Ministry of Defense over the previous year.
In January, Taiwan’s parliament approved an additional $8.6 billion expenditure bill to increase the island’s defensive capabilities against China, breaking the previous annual defence budget record.