Taipei [Taiwan], July 17 : The third day of 'Urban Resilience' exercises- featuring air raid alerts, public evacuation manoeuvres, and disaster relief drills- to guard against Chinese threats to invade- will continue on Thursday across Taiwan, local media reported.
The civil defence drills are part of Taiwan's broader annual 10-day Han Kuang military drills, which began on July 9--the island country's largest war games--aimed at increasing defence preparedness in the face of a hypothetical Chinese invasion amidst escalating tensions.
Thursday's Urban Resilience exercises drills will be held in Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Yilan, Keelung City, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County. It will be held from 1:30 pm to 2 pm
Tomorrow, on the last day of the exercise, it will be held in Hualien County, Taitung County and the outlying Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu islands, Focus Taiwan reported.
In Taipei, the scenario simulates a sudden aerial assault, prompting the central government to issue alerts and activate the warning system, according to the report in the state news agency.
The air raid alerts will last for 30 minutes, and once the alerts are lifted, local governments and civil defence groups will follow with relief station, emergency station or disaster relief drills.
The drills were cancelled in Tainan, Chiayi City, Chiayi County and Yunlin County as those areas continue to recover from damage caused by Typhoon Danas, which hit southern Taiwan hard on July 6 and 7, the Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.
Participation in the drills is mandatory and failure to comply may result in fines of NT$30,000 to NT$150,000 (US$1,000-US$5,000) under the country's Civil Defense Act.
Yesterday, Taiwan's military conducted a nighttime drill simulating a response to a potential Chinese attempt to seize Taipei Songshan Airport.
Taiwan's Defence Ministry (MND) said it had tracked 58 Chinese military aircraft, nine naval vessels, and one official ship around Taiwan between 6 am on Wednesday and 6 am on Thursday.
It said that 45 of the 58 Chinese Army aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait median line in the nation's northern, central, southwestern, and eastern air defence identification zone, the country's defence ministry stated.
According to Focus Taiwan, since September 2020, China has increased its use of gray zone tactics by incrementally increasing the number of military aircraft and naval vessels operating around the island.
Meanwhile, France, in its latest National Strategic Review released on Monday, has highlighted China's repeated military exercises around Taiwan and asserted that Beijing's escalating pressure on Taipei has created unease in the region.
"In 2024 and 2025, repeated Chinese military manoeuvres around Taiwan on an unprecedented scale marked a clear acceleration in the strengthening of China's military capabilities," the report said as cited by Taiwan's central news agency.
To ensure its ambitions will proceed, the French report said, China is exploiting unprecedented hybrid actions such as cyber operations and technological predation, in particular in defense technologies such as quantum, artificial intelligence and space technologies.
Japan's defence ministry, too has said in a new document, DOJ2025, that "the joint operations between China and Russia combined with threats coming from North Korea pose the greatest threat to global order since World War II."
The presence of Chinese warships off the coast of southwestern Japan has tripled in the last three years, including in waters between Taiwan and the neighboring Japanese island of Yonaguni, according to the Japanese Defence white paper.
China views Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up military and political pressure to assert those claims.
Lai Ching-te, who completed a year in office has urged Beijing to restart dialogue with his government on equal terms.