With increased Chinese PLA threat, Taiwan to flag off exercise Han Kuang on Monday

Taipei [Taiwan], July 21 : Taiwan is gearing up for the annual Han Kuang military exercises slated for July 22-26, with the focus this year including unscripted combat scenarios aimed at testing troops' responses to decentralized command, updated Rules of Engagement (ROE) and nighttime operations, a report by the Central News Agency of Taiwan said.
The annual Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan's major war games, have been held since 1984 to test Taiwan's combat readiness in the face of a possible Chinese invasion.
The Central News Agency says the term "unscripted" means that the simulated "enemy attack" could happen anytime and anywhere with any available weapon systems, to better simulate real-life battlefield conditions.
According to a statement from the Ministry of National Defence Taiwan, which was presented on X by a virtual anchor, the exercise seeks to refine operational plans in light of an increased threat from the Chinese PLA.
"In recent years, the PLA has increasingly intensified military threat to our country. With the enemy's possible actions and operational thinking rapidly evolving, the ROC armed forces refine the operation plans for the defence to meet our needs. The scenarios in Han Kuang exercise are developed with possible PLA actions in an invasion against Taiwan, as well as the reviews of previous exercises. Throughout the exercise, all branches of our forces will be given the said scenarios, which our forces will respond to with their current capacity under the guidance of our joint operation plans," the statement said.
The statement further said that the defence forces would engage in the exercise non-stop.
"What's different in this year's field training exercise is that the chief of general staff will be the chief referee, while the commanders of the three branches will be his deputy referees. Our forces will engage in the exercise non-stop with their current capacity in their area of responsibility. A small part of our naval and aerial forces will be sent for force-on-force drills. We will be focusing on cross-branch joint operations and nighttime operations and put our capacity in force protection, air defence, joint interception, and joint territory defence operation to test in this five-lay long exercise. The endeavour of our service members is going to be presented live to our citizens," the statement said.
"We are going to be honest with ourselves, dive into the review of what happens when we execute our plans, and take a close look at the effectiveness of the training of our forces. We are going to come up with solutions that address the issues we encountered to achieve high readiness level and build up credible combat capacity for our country to ensure her safety," the statement added.
According to Taiwan's Ministry of Defence, the Han Kuang exercises will not feature live-fire drills on the island of Taiwan, but troops stationed in Kinmen and Matsu will still use live ammunition during the exercises.
The focus will be to allow troops and commanders to familiarize themselves with the environment they will be defending should a war break out and practice their defensive plans.
For the first time, the Han Kuang exercises will also be held at night to test the armed forces' 24-hour defence capabilities. This year's exercises will be carried out across key strategic locations around Taiwan, including Greater Taipei, Tainan, and Kaohsiung.