Emergency drills this yr included for the primary time an train simulating Beijing navy strikes on Taipei and different cities
Fearing a possible assault from Beijing, the self-governing island of Taiwan has revised its annual emergency drills and for the primary time included a simulation of a full-scale assault on its territory and particularly on the capital, Taipei.
“For the reason that warfare in Ukraine, we now have seen the worldwide and regional state of affairs change, so we now have to make associated preparations,” Taipei mayor Chiang Wan-an was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
“We would like peace, and everybody has to understand the significance of peace throughout this drill, however we’re not backing down from a struggle and are making all mandatory preparations,” the official added.
Whereas Taiwan frequently holds emergency and navy drills, starting from air raid and earthquake-alarm testing to huge stay fireplace drills, this yr’s workout routines in Taipei are the primary to include a state of affairs the place a Chinese language missile had struck an residence block, inflicting widespread harm and injuring numerous civilians. The train was held in a blocked off space within the metropolis’s enterprise district.
Media stories counsel over 1,000 first responders from the Pink Cross, volunteer protection teams, reservists and nursing college students practiced cordoning off the ‘struck’ areas and serving to ‘injured’ civilians. In the meantime, firefighters, who took on the roles of the injured civilians, had been rescued from the rooftop of the demolished residence constructing and half-crushed buses utilizing cherry pickers and cranes.
Related workout routines are anticipated to be held in different cities all through the island within the coming weeks.
The brand new drills come as tensions throughout the Taiwan strait have escalated lately. Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has repeatedly stated it seeks to reunite it with the remainder of China, ideally by means of peaceable means. Nonetheless, if diplomatic efforts fail, China has urged that it may resort to pressure to grab management of the territory, over which it claims sovereignty.
Final month, the Chinese language navy carried out mixed navy workout routines round Taiwan and simulated strikes on the island. Beijing described the maneuvers as a warning to separatists in Taipei and to the “exterior forces” that assist them, possible referring to the US.
The US has repeatedly expressed its assist for the federal government of Taiwan and offered billions of {dollars} price of weapons to its forces. On April 29, the US Military Particular Operations Command additionally reportedly held drills simulating a response to a Chinese language seizure of Taiwan, with American troops working towards serving to the island fend off a Beijing offensive.
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