Taiwan to stage week-long anti-China war games

Taipei, May 7: Taiwan will stage a series of live-fire military exercises next week aimed at demonstrating how the island's armed forces would fight off an attack from arch rival China, the Defence Ministry said today.

The drills, set to start on May 14, would include demonstrating fighting off waves of landing vessels, defending bases and airfields against airborne assaults and repelling a special forces attacks, the ministry said.

The military also planned to land fighter jets on a section of closed-off freeway, a ministry officer said, practising for the possibility that air bases were knocked out by enemy attacks forcing jets to refuel and re-equip elsewhere.

This is the second stage of the annual Han Kuang, or Chinese Glory, exercise. The first phase took place in April via computer simulations during which Taiwan's military admitted for the first time it would launch missile strikes against China in the event of an attack.

That announcement drew rebuke from the United States which, fearing involvement in any future conflict, urged Taiwan not to develop ''offensive'' weapons.

Taiwan and China have lived in a state of military preparedness since 1949 when the Chinese Nationalist government lost a civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists and fled to the island.

Beijing says the island is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to reclaim it.

The military balance in the Taiwan Strait is now shifting in China's favour because the Asian giant has been pumping up defence amid concern that Taiwan will declare independence, analysts say.

Next week's live-fire exercises will take place all over the main island and will also include the island of Penghu, which lies in the Taiwan Strait as well as coastal areas and ports along both east and west coasts.

REUTERS>