00:00The year is 2027, and as China ramps up its threats to take Taiwan by force, many believe an attack is imminent.
00:09This is the scenario behind this year's Hanguang exercises, Taiwan's largest annual military drills simulating how the country would defend against an all-out attack from China.
00:23While the drills have been carried out since the 1980s, this year's iteration is the longest ever,
00:28with the duration extended from five days to ten.
00:31The drills begin with simulating Chinese grey zone tactics, operations that put pressure on Taiwan but stop short of direct conflict.
00:55This includes Chinese Coast Guard ships and military aircraft coming close to the country's borders, as well as disinformation campaigns.
01:03These are all meant to put pressure on Taiwan and sow internal division.
01:07Taiwan's responding by mobilizing a record 22,000 reservists to practice handling the variety of threats Taiwan might face from China's military, or the PLA.
01:18I think that might be China's overall grand strategy, where tear Taiwan apart from the inside and let the PLA come in to finish the job.
01:27But tearing Taiwan apart from the inside in and by itself is not going to cause Taiwan to surrender to China.
01:34The PLA still has to come in.
01:36That's why the second stage of Hangguang simulates what would happen if those tactics suddenly escalate and turn into an all-out war, with Taiwan conducting coastal defense drills.
01:47While Taiwan has practiced how to stop an invasion for decades, many exercises, even apart from Hangguang, have been criticized for being too scripted, as many soldiers already know how the drills will play out beforehand.
01:59I hear from people when I criticize these types of exercises of cramming everybody shoulder to shoulder for a nice photo op and they say that's not how we really do it.
02:09But another truism in warfare is you practice like you play, you fight like you train.
02:15And so if all you've ever been doing or most of what you've been doing is training soldiers to just lay there in a static position with a well-known target on a beach so you get a good picture, that's instinctively what they're going to do.
02:25The last component of Hangguang focuses on an attack further inland, as well as civilian operations.
02:32On one of the last days of the drill, the capital of Taipei will undergo a city-wide air raid drill, with civilians taking cover and escorted into designated safe zones.
02:42But I would say that if we are in full alert, if people are ready, then we don't need to do all these drills.
02:53I think this is our current mission to know or to introduce to our general public that modern warfare is different from what we have known before.
03:08As Taiwan gets ready for 10 days of war games, the military says that the ultimate goal is not a show of force, but more about seeing what Taiwan is lacking to deter a possible conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
