{"id":48515,"date":"2025-07-17T10:11:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T10:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=48515"},"modified":"2025-07-17T10:11:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T10:11:30","slug":"sirens-and-evacuations-as-taipei-rehearses-to-counter-china-invasion-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=48515","title":{"rendered":"Sirens and evacuations as Taipei rehearses to counter China invasion threat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taiwan’s capital Taipei came to a standstill on Thursday as the island held one of its largest-ever civil defence exercises against possible Chinese invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Air raid sirens rang out across the metropolitan area and in some areas residents sought shelter indoors, while traffic ground to a halt. The city also held mass evacuation drills and mass casualty event rehearsals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exercise was held in conjunction with Taiwan’s largest ever war games – the annual Han Kuang exercises – as the island increasingly attempts to ramp up its defences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to “reunify” with the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Getty
Soldiers rehearsed an urban warfare scenario in Taichung city on Wednesday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tensions have increased since last year when Taiwan elected its president William Lai, whom China reviles as a “separatist”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday’s event was attended by Lai, government and city officials, and foreign officials including Raymond Greene, the head of the American Institute of Taiwan which serves as a de facto US embassy on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a speech at the end of the exercise, Lai stressed the importance of unity and resilience of Taiwan’s society to protect the island and its democratic values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also stressed that the Han Kuang and Urban Resilience exercises were aimed at building up Taiwan’s defences and that the island was not seeking war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We hope by preparing for war, we can avoid war, to achieve the goal of peace,” he said. “With preparation, we have strength.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has criticised the exercises as “a bluff and self-deceiving stance” by Lai and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party aimed at pushing a pro-independence agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While previous Han Kuang exercises also had civil defence components, this year authorities have combined them in a single Urban Resilience exercise across the island which began on Tuesday and ends on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each day of the exercise sees air raid sirens ringing out for half an hour in several cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents in designated areas in each city must shelter indoors or risk incurring a fine. All shops and restaurants must also pause operations. Road traffic must also come to a stop, with drivers required to pull over and head indoors immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Taipei, hundreds of emergency workers and volunteers took part in air raid drills and evacuations at a busy temple square, schools, subway stations and highways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also held a mock mass casualty event simulating missile or bomb strikes on buildings, where emergency personnel pulled out survivors and treated their injuries, and set up distribution points for emergency supplies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC: Taiwan’s capital Taipei came to a standstill on Thursday as the island held one of its largest-ever civil defence exercises against possible Chinese invasion. Air raid sirens rang out across the metropolitan area and in some areas residents sought shelter indoors, while traffic ground to a halt. The city also held mass evacuation drills and mass casualty event rehearsals. The exercise was held in conjunction with Taiwan’s largest ever war games – the annual Han Kuang exercises – as the island increasingly attempts to ramp up its defences. China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its part of its territory and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48517,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48515\/revisions\/48517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}