Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang military exercise, scheduled for July 9-18 this year, will simulate a Chinese invasion in the year 2027.
Taiwanese troops frequently train to repel a hypothetical Chinese invasion, but they have never before specified when the invasion was taking place.
“The Han Kuang exercise has always been designed to simulate scenarios that could occur within the next one to two years,” Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo said in defense of the curiously specific military drill.
The Defense Ministry announced the details of this year’s Han Kuang exercise on Wednesday – the day after the head of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, told a conference in Washington that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping has ordered his forces to be ready for an invasion of Taiwan by 2027.
Cotton said China’s military and industrial buildup made Xi’s timetable for invading Taiwan disturbingly realistic, because Beijing has been focused on preparing for war, while the Western world spent the post-Cold War era daydreaming about how it could invest a “peace dividend” that never materialized.
“Great power competition is back. That’s why I speak today with a sense of urgency,” Cotton said, urging expedited development and production of key weapons systems like the LGM-35 Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and B-21 Raider bomber.
WATCH: President Donald Trump Introduces the F-47
The Han Kuang announcement from Taiwan’s Defense Ministry the following day reads as if someone in Taipei was paying very close attention to everything Cotton said, right down to the date of a hypothetical Chinese invasion. Defense Minister Koo also emphasized the importance of developing and testing new weapon systems, much as Cotton did.
“With the acquisition of new weapon systems, our training must continuously undergo validation to ensure combat effectiveness,” Koo said.
On Thursday, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te announced defense spending will rise to over three percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – a substantial increase from 2.4 percent today, but still less than the ten percent requested by President Donald Trump and his nominee for under-secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby.
Lai promised Taiwan will “reform national defense” and “advance our cooperation with the U.S. and other democracies in upholding regional stability and prosperity.”
Lai said the increased military budget would be used to purchase more advanced weapons from the United States, and also to increase the size of the Taiwanese military, by retaining more long-term professional military and increasing compulsory military service from four months to one year.
Be the first to comment