Taiwan's annual military exercises this year will rehearse "kill" zones. in the sea, reports "Reuters".
The Ministry of Defense specified that a blockade breach and simulation of a scenario in which China suddenly turns one of its regular exercises around the island into a real attack will be practiced.
For the past four years, China, which claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its territory, has regularly staged exercises around the island to pressure Taipei to accept Beijing's claims to sovereignty despite Taiwan's strong objections.
Taiwan begins its major annual exercises this month with eight - instead of the usual five - day tabletop maneuvers, given the number of scenarios that will be involved. In July, they will be followed by actual combat exercises.
The head of the ministry's joint combat planning division said it would be trained on how to respond quickly to a Chinese exercise suddenly turned into an attack - something military planners have grown to worry about given the regularity of the Chinese maneuvers.
Another focus will be how different parts of the armed forces can mount a coordinated response to a Chinese blockade.
The exercises will include naval, air and coast guard forces, shore-based anti-ship weapons and drones to establish a maritime "attack and kill chain", he added.
During a large round of military exercises around Taiwan last April, China practiced precision strikes and blockades on the island.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine two years ago, Taiwan has been trying to learn lessons from the conflict to apply to its own exercises, particularly how the much smaller Ukrainian forces managed to repel the outnumbered Russian army.
These lessons will be applied this year as well, along with the lessons learned from the war in Gaza.
For both conflicts, Taiwanese officials are considering the use of psychological warfare and, in particular, asymmetric operations.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen supports the idea of "asymmetric warfare" to make his forces - also significantly smaller than China's - more mobile and difficult to attack, for example with vehicle-mounted missiles and drones.
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