By Yimou Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s Presidential Office held its first “tabletop” exercise involving government agencies beyond the armed forces on Thursday, simulating a military escalation with China amid renewed threats from Beijing, officials said.
Dozens of central and local government agencies as well as civil groups participated in the three-hour exercise, the sources said, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
China has in recent years stepped up military threats, including the large massing of naval forces this month and daily military activities close to democratically governed Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own over Taipei’s rejection.
The war game held inside the Presidential Office in Taipei was led by Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim and National Security Council Secretary-general Joseph Wu, the officials familiar with the meeting told Reuters.
It was part of the Taiwan government’s ongoing effort to build up its capacity to cope with emergencies from disaster to military conflict for government offices and civil society.
The exercise simulated scenarios including China’s “high intensity” grey-zone warfare as well as when the island is “on the verge of conflict” to test response readiness by Taiwan government offices and civil society, a security official familiar with the matter said.
In a media briefing at the Presidential Office late on Thursday, Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang said the government is aiming to train more than 50,000 volunteers across the island by next year capable of emergency response including first aid capacity.
Liu said the government hoped to involve the public sectors such as taxi drivers and security guards to relieve burdens for government agencies during an emergency.
Various government agencies were also asked to build backup systems and make plans for speedy recovery after a shutdown, she said
President Lai Ching-te said Taiwan is “racing against time” to build up its capacity to counter disasters and boost its deterrence against an invading enemy.
“The peace and stability in the first island chain is being collectively challenged by authoritarian states,” Lai was quoted as saying in a statement from his office, although he did not name any specific country.
The first island chain is a collection of archipelagos running roughly from Indonesia in an arc northeast to Japan, encompassing the South China Sea and East China Sea.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
China has staged two rounds of major exercises around Taiwan this year to pressure Taipei, one in May and one in October, dubbed “Joint Sword – 2024A” and B, respectively.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
