TAIPEI, Aug 6 (Reuters) – Taiwan President Lai Ching-te made a late-night dash in the back of an armoured personnel carrier to a command centre as part of annual war games designed to show how the government would continue to work in the event of a war.
Taiwan kicked off the Han Kuang exercises on Wednesday. Lasting 10 days, the drills are designed to bolster preparations should China, which views the democratically governed island as its own territory, ever make good on its vow to take Taiwan by force if necessary.
The presidential office said on Thursday Lai and a group of senior officials had been taken the previous night to a command centre, and showed images of him wearing body armour and a helmet getting into the back of an armoured personnel carrier.
Lai and members of his team “conducted drills on commanding defensive operations and maintaining the continued functioning of government during emergency situations,” his spokesperson Karen Kuo said in a statement.
The drills were intended to review the command structure, inter-agency coordination, and emergency-response mechanisms, ensuring that the government can continue operating effectively in the face of various “unforeseen circumstances,” she added.
Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, has long worried that China could try and carry out a “decapitation” operation to take out the president and other top leaders during a war.
In 2023, during Chinese war games around Taiwan, Chinese state media said that one of the scenarios they practised was precision strikes for a “beheading” mission.
Beijing says Lai is a “separatist” and has rebuffed his repeated offers of talks. Lai says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
