Asia-Pacific
Taiwan drills against Chinese attack: ‘Risk of invasion in 2027’
Adnkronos International, Rome (TNS)
March 20, 2025
A Taiwanese navy vessel launches a U.S.-made Standard missile during an exercise near Taiwan in July 2022. (Sam Yeh, AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — 2027 is the year China could be ready to invade Taiwan. And now the date ‘enters’ an official document of the island. In July, as part of the exercises held every year, Taiwan’s military will simulate the island’s defense against a possible Chinese attack “in 2027,” the Taipei Defense Ministry confirmed in a report to Parliament, stating that this year’s scenarios will be based on incursions related to a possible “Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2027.”
The island, de facto independent, claims its democracy, but Beijing considers it a “rebel province” and wants “reunification” without excluding the use of force. The report states that the objective of the military exercises is to counter the “grey zone” tactics often employed by China, which involve an act of hostile interference but are not considered ‘open’ conflict.
“Commanders at all operational and tactical levels will plan scenarios and situations from a practical point of view based on possible enemy actions,” the text explains. Taiwan wants to “verify at all levels the ability of the troops to follow the plans and thus build a military force capable of reacting quickly.”
Pending the ‘Han Kuang’ exercises, scheduled for mid-July, Taiwan’s military is engaged in five days of maneuvers, launched on Monday and designed to strengthen “preparedness and response capabilities.” The maneuvers coincided with Taiwan’s confirmation yesterday that it had detected the presence of 59 Chinese military aircraft around the island in 24 hours. Never before have so many been reported since last October.
“A warning to separatist and pro-independence forces,” according to the Beijing Foreign Ministry. “It’s not necessarily as long as we thought” the time it would take China to move from exercises to combat, warned Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo. “If you want peace, prepare for war,” reads one of his ministry’s latest posts on X.
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