TAIPEI(Reuters) Taiwan’s annual military drills this year take into account China’s recent war games and focus on breaking a blockade, the defence ministry said on Wednesday, as a senior security official said Taiwan now had a “Five Eyes” intelligence link.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military pressure in the past three years to try to assert its sovereignty claim.
China practised precision strikes and blockades in drills around the island this month staged after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen met US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said the “Han Kuang” exercises would be split into two parts – tabletop drills from May 15 to 19, and forces mobilised from July 24 to 28 in live-fire exercises.
The focus will be on combat forces “preservation” and “maritime interception”, it said.
