Taiwan's military conducted live-fire drills and simulated repelling a Chinese air landing assault on the strategically vital Penghu Islands on Monday, 10 August during annual war games.
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.
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 to seize the island by force.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's cabinet will propose a 16 per cent annual rise in defence spending for 2027, which will for the first time exceed one trillion Taiwan dollars ($31 billion), the official Central News Agency reported on Sunday, as Taipei bolsters its military.
The move will come as China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military and political pressure over the past few years to assert its claims, which Taipei strongly rejects.
But Taiwan also faces calls from Washington to spend more on its own defence, mirroring pressure from the United States on Europe, something President Lai Ching-te has enthusiastically embraced.
The proposed budget of more than T$1.1 trillion, to be unveiled on 20 August, includes funding for the coast guard, veterans and special projects, and will - like this year - exceed 3 per cent of gross domestic product, the Central News Agency said.
Iran has reached an understanding with Oman on transit arrangements through the Strait of Hormuz, but the waterway will remain closed until the U.S...
At least 37 people were killed after a Russian drone strike hit an ammunition depot in the Kyiv region, triggering powerful secondary explosions&nb...
A 22-year-old woman has been killed and five other people injured, some seriously, after shots were fired at a rave in Aarau, northern Switzerland,...
Iran is setting conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including an end to the war, the lifting of the U.S. blockade and sanctions. At the same time, Washington is stepping up economic pressure on Tehran through what the White House calls “Operation Economic Outcast.”
Mail sorting centres used by Nova Poshta, Ukraine's largest private postal company, were destroyed in Russian strikes overnight, the firm said. Elsewhere, four people were injured after drones struck an apartment building in Sevastopol, Crimea, according to the Moscow-installed governor.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused U.S. government and Israel-aligned actors of manipulating energy markets to promote the war with Iran.
Russian strikes on the Kyiv region overnight killed 37 people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. Zelenskyy added that the Ukrainian capital was under "virtually nonstop attack" from drones.
Iran has reached an understanding with Oman on transit arrangements through the Strait of Hormuz, but the waterway will remain closed until the U.S. fulfils its commitments, a senior Iranian diplomat said on Saturday.
At least 37 people were killed after a Russian drone strike hit an ammunition depot in the Kyiv region, triggering powerful secondary explosions President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday, vowing to punish suspected negligence in the second such incident in two months.
Icelanders have voted to stay outside the European Union, rejecting a government-backed proposal to reopen membership negotiations and keeping the country’s long-running debate over EU membership unresolved, according to the latest counting figures.
A 22-year-old woman has been killed and five other people injured, some seriously, after shots were fired at a rave in Aarau, northern Switzerland, police said on Sunday.
The death toll from last week's catastrophic floods in Nepal and Tibet rose to 750 on Sunday, with 3,044 people still missing, as fresh rainfall pushed up river levels and forced rescuers to move to higher ground.
Groundwater has fallen by as much as 150 to 200 metres in some parts of Kabul, according to a senior water official, as families in Afghanistan’s capital struggle with dry wells and increasingly unreliable supplies.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment