By Yimou Lee, Yi-Chin Lee and David Lague
PENGHU, Taiwan, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Taiwan’s military simulated repelling a Chinese air landing assault on the strategically vital Penghu Islands on Monday, and will later in the day “throttle” mobile internet for the first time during annual war games.
The 10-day Han Kuang exercise kicked off last week, rehearsing various scenarios should China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, ever make good on threats to try and seize the island by force.
Troops from the First Theatre Command opened fire in the pre-dawn hours on a beach in Penghu, which sits in the Taiwan Strait, with M60A3 tanks, various artillery pieces and anti-aircraft guns.
The troops were combining to form what the military called a “multi-layered” defence against a simulated enemy attempting a rapid coastal landing.
Penghu, which sits closer to the coast of the main island of Taiwan than to China, is seen by Taiwanese strategists as a potential first target for Beijing, which could try and take the islands and use them as a base to attack Taiwan with missiles and drones.
Reuters was given rare access to the exercise, observing ground troops loading tank ammunition and taking up firing positions in darkness before the drill began.
Reservists from Penghu took part in the exercise, part of their 14-day training programme as Taiwan’s military works to better integrate reserve forces into its operational planning and make its preparations more realistic.
MOBILE INTERNET TO BE ‘THROTTLED’
Later on Monday in central Taiwan, the government will deliberately slow mobile internet speeds for the first time during the civil defence part of the drills, testing how citizens would communicate if bandwidth became scarce in emergencies ranging from disasters to a Chinese invasion.
Key services, from ATMs and traffic signals to emergency ambulance calls, will not be affected, and neither will landlines nor fixed internet services.
The government has widely flagged the drill, sending on Friday afternoon a text message alert to mobile phones across Taiwan in both Chinese and English and posting a weekend video message on social media.
Northern Taiwan, including the capital Taipei, will see the same exercise on Thursday.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Yimou Lee in Taipei; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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