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Taiwan postpones annual live-fire drills to September

2021-06-12
Focus Taiwan
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(Picture from MNA's Website)
(Picture from MNA's Website)

Taipei, June 10 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Thursday that the live-fire component of this year's Han Kuang exercises has been postponed to September, due to the current COVID-19 situation in Taiwan.

Even then, “the itinerary and the number of participants in the drills will depend on the government's COVID-19 prevention protocols," the MND said in a statement.

In moving the 2021 Han Kuang live-fire exercises to September, priority is being given to preventing the spread of COVID-19, the ministry said.

The annual Han Kuang exercises, which were first held in 1984, involve tabletop and live-fire drills that test Taiwan’s capability to repel a possible military attack by China.

This year's tabletop drills were held April 23-30, with the aim of honing the decision-making and battle management skills of Taiwan’s military commanders.

The live-fire exercises, meanwhile, were scheduled to start July 12 and run for five days.

Military sources told CNA on May 24 that this year's live-fire drills would be conducted on a smaller scale and closed to media coverage, in an effort to reduce the risk of COVID-19 cluster infections.

To date, Taiwan has confirmed 12,222 COVID-19 cases, more than 10,500 of which have been domestic infections reported since May 15, when the country first recorded over 100 cases in a single day.

Since May 15 when the domestic outbreak began to surge, the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the country has risen sharply from 12 to 361, according to data from the Central Epidemic Command Center.

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