A Taiwanese soldier stands guard on the street after a drill at the Songshan Airport.
Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images
TAIPEI — Gunshots rang out at midnight as Taiwanese infantry, hidden on rooftops and in alleyways, opened fire with blanks along the streets of northern Taipei. They weren't fighting for the beaches; instead, they were defending a six-lane road, split down the middle by elevated metro tracks, leading to Songshan Airport, the capital's closest airfield.By the sixth night of Taiwan's annual Han Kuang exercise, the simulated fighting had moved inland, including into the heart of Taipei. That progression offered a revealing glimpse at how Taiwan is preparing for war with China.Taiwan's defense ministry stayed relatively quiet about operational details during the 10 days of military drills, and the 40 or so journalists and observers at the Songshan drill, for example, couldn't reach a clear consensus about where the simulated enemy was coming from.Authorities provided little on-the-record detail about the specific capabilities they hoped to test or the lessons they aimed to draw from this year's Han Kuang exercise, but the nature of the drills, the sequence of events, and their locations offered clues about how Taiwan suspects mainland China might attack and how the island intends to fight back.
