For the first time, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercise will combine conventional war games and urban survival drills under “unprecedented” live-fire conditions when it gets under way next week.
The move signals growing concerns in Taipei that Beijing could trigger a prolonged conflict requiring both military defence and civilian resilience.
The 41st Han Kuang exercise from July 9 to 18 would test joint operational readiness under “unprecedented 10-day, round-the-clock live-fire conditions”, the Taiwanese defence ministry said on Tuesday.
The ministry stated that this year’s edition would incorporate the “whole-of-society resilience” approach, introduced last year by Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te as an updated civil defence model.
The urban drills would feature air-raid warnings, mass evacuations and critical infrastructure protection across multiple regions. The aim, the ministry said, was to simulate a full-spectrum response to war – from the initial non-military “grey zone” pressure to full attack, coastal landings, and extended urban warfare.
“Only through readiness can we preserve peace,” said Major General Tung Chi-hsing, head of the ministry’s joint operations planning division, emphasising that integration of civil defence and national mobilisation was key to Taiwan’s overall resilience.
The simulated scenario will begin with grey-zone harassment such as cyberattacks or economic coercion, before escalating to conflict.
Key phases will include combat readiness transition – simulating rapid alerts and decentralised deployments; joint anti-landing drills to counter People’s Liberation Army amphibious assaults; and missile strikes.
Other drills will include coast and urban warfare, examining the ability of Taiwanese forces to repel beachhead incursions and defend towns; deep defence operations rehearsing layered resistance in cities and mountain areas; and prolonged warfare testing, assessing both military and civilian systems under continuous attack.
To reflect early-stage PLA strikes on command centres and logistics hubs, held up as a very likely scenario, the exercises will stress mobility, redundancy and battlefield survivability. Troops will rehearse rapid relocation, backup command activation, and communications blackout protocol, according to Tung.
He added that legal experts would be embedded in the exercises to ensure the military actions remained consistent with international and domestic laws – describing it as a gesture that affirmed Taiwan’s adherence to democratic values even under existential threat.
The Han Kuang drills will run concurrently with the 35th Tung Hsin national mobilisation drill, which Tung said would include a full 14-day call-up for reservists, notably the 206th Infantry Brigade, marking the first time for an entire brigade to be called up for the exercise.
A major new addition is the “2025 Urban Resilience (Air Defence) Exercise,” which will be coordinated with local governments and take place over July 15 to 18.
The drill will simulate a sudden PLA assault on Taiwan proper as well as the outlying island clusters of Penghu, Quemoy – also known as Kinmen – and Matsu. It will test how municipalities handle air defence and civil protection in wartime conditions.
According to Chu Sen-tsuen, manpower mobilisation director of Taiwan’s All-out Defence Mobilisation Office, the goal of the resilience drill “is to strengthen urban preparedness and validate evacuation, sheltering, and rescue protocols”.
Each region will hold a 30-minute air raid drill, using phone alerts, sirens, TV and radio broadcasts, and loudspeakers. After the alarm is lifted, civil teams will simulate disaster response, casualty rescue and shelter management.
In the capital Taipei, plus Taichung in central Taiwan and Tainan in the south, the full 10-day Han Kuang timeline would be compressed into a single-day simulation combining air defence, war-gaming and urban survival tasks, Chu said.
Local governments will designate three zones each – typically transport hubs, shopping areas, and government buildings – where civilians will be directed to take shelter. “Failure to comply with evacuation orders may result in fines of NT$30,000 to NT$150,000 (about US$1,030 to US$5,130) under the Civil Defence Act,” Chu warned.
He said the integrated drills would also test civil-military coordination at wartime, including the joint use of public and private medical facilities and legal simulations to ensure adherence to humanitarian law.
While Taiwan has long rehearsed for a potential PLA attack, analysts said the growing emphasis on whole-of-society resilience reflected a broader shift in thinking – that future wars might be won not only with firepower, but with public unity and resolve.
“By combining conventional combat readiness with civilian preparedness, this year’s Han Kuang marks a turning point in Taiwan’s defence strategy – a whole-of-society effort to endure the worst-case scenario,” said Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst at the government-funded Institute for National Defence and Security Research.
Beijing, which views Taiwan as part of China, has vowed to pursue unification by force if necessary. Taiwanese leader Lai has repeatedly angered Beijing with his comments since taking office last year, including describing mainland China as a “foreign hostile force” and declaring that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are “not subordinate to each other”.
The provocative rhetoric has prompted Beijing to ramp up military pressure on the island, with frequent PLA drills and simulated blockades.
The United States, Taiwan’s main international backer and arms supplier, has cited intelligence reports to warn that the PLA may be ready to attack Taiwan by 2027.
Like most countries, the US does not recognise self-governed Taiwan as an independent state. However, it is opposed to any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo and is legally bound under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide weapons for defence. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
