Taiwan Military Practices Rapid Response to Potential Chinese Attack

This year, the island’s annual Han Guang drill is for the first time simulating a Chinese invasion in 2027.

Navy personnel stand by on a Tuo Chiang-class corvette as they take part in a combat readiness exercise at the Zuoying Naval Base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Jan. 9, 2025. I-hwa Cheng/AFP via Getty Images

Taiwan’s military is practicing how to respond quickly if a Chinese military drill around the island turns into an invasion.

The second “immediate combat response” drill, held between Monday and Friday this week, coincided with a surge in the number of military aircraft and warships that the Chinese regime sent to circle Taiwan.

Taiwan held the first such drill in December 2024, when the Chinese regime’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reserved seven airspace zones along the Taiwan Strait amid speculation that the regime was holding a large military exercise around the island. 

Presenting the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) to lawmakers on the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Wednesday, Defense Minister Wellington Koo Li-hsiung said that, during planned drills, operational zone commanders are given scenarios to which they must respond. He also said the military would hold unplanned drills in response to Beijing’s military harassment.

Taiwan, or the Republic of China, is the continuation of an exiled power that ruled mainland China before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took control in 1949. The CCP has never ruled Taiwan. It has stated that it would endeavor to absorb Taiwan by peaceful means but has repeatedly threatened to annex the self-ruled island by force.

In recent years, the CCP has ramped up military pressure on Taiwan, with its planes and ships patrolling near Taiwan almost on a daily basis.

On Monday, the CCP’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters the regime’s military operation was a warning to so-called Taiwan independence separatist forces and external forces—such as the United States—that she said were “hellbent on abetting and aiding ‘Taiwan independence.’”

Mao reiterated the CCP’s “one-China principle,” which claims the communist regime is the only legitimate government on both sides of the strait.

“‘Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace and stability are as irreconcilable as fire and water,” she said.

In the QDR published on March 18, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said that with Beijing’s growing military power, the island’s response time to a potential Chinese attack has become shorter.

“In wartime, the PLA may use means in multiple fields including in land, sea, air, space, cyberspace, and electromagnetic and cognitive means” to paralyze Taiwan’s military power and launch a blitzkrieg or to isolate or blockade Taiwan, and force the island nation to surrender, the report says.

“The national army will focus more on immediate combat readiness, rapid mobilization, deep defense, and sustained long-term resilience to thwart the enemy’s plan to secure a quick victory.”

Meanwhile, Koo told lawmakers on Wednesday that, for the first time, Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang war game is stimulating a Chinese invasion in 2027.

In 2023, then-CIA Director William Burns cited U.S. intelligence, saying Chinese leader Xi Jinping had ordered the PLA to be ready for invading Taiwan by 2027.

Speaking at the McAleese Defense Programs Conference in Washington on Tuesday, U.S. Strategic Command Commander Gen. Anthony J. Cotton said that a 2027 invasion remains Xi’s ambition.