Taiwan slows mobile Internet for drills

The government yesterday slowed mobile Internet coverage for a large swathe of the central part of Taiwan proper for the first time during annual war games, simulating communication disruption in the event of a Chinese attack or natural disaster. Taiwan, which has long lived with the threat of a Chinese invasion, holds air raid drills along with its war games every year, clearing people from the streets for 30 minutes. During the Internet “throttling” drill, centered on Taichung, only basic mobile phone services worked, although other functions, including ATMs, traffic signals, landlines and fixed-line Internet services, were not affected. Photo: An Rong Xu, Bloomberg Air raid sirens rang out in Taichung and people cleared the streets from 2:30pm as the government sent simultaneous text messages in Chinese and English telling mobile phone users of “simulated air attacks on communication infrastructure.” The government had widely announced the drill ahead of time, including posting details on social media, and most people Reuters spoke to at the Taichung Railway Station were prepared. Some people tested it themselves and found that mobile Internet speeds had indeed dropped to zero. Fixed-line Internet at work or home, using desktops or laptops, continued to work normally. Photo: Cheng-Chia Huang, Reuters Many people said that the disruption to mobile Internet service made them realize how much information they are unable to access when their phones cannot connect to the Internet, and stressed the importance of preparing essential information for offline use. The same exercise is to be repeated on Thursday in northern Taiwan, including Taipei. Earlier yesterday, the military simulated repelling a Chinese air landing assault on the strategically vital Penghu Islands. Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA The 10-day Han Kuang Exercises started last week, rehearsing various scenarios should China try to seize Taiwan by force. Troops from the First Theater Command opened fire in the pre-dawn hours on a beach in Penghu, which sits in the Taiwan Strait, with M60A3 tanks, various artillery pieces and anti-aircraft guns. The troops were combining to form what the military called a “multilayered” defense against a simulated enemy attempting a rapid coastal landing. Photo: An Rong Xu, Bloomberg Reservists from Penghu took part in the exercise, part of their 14-day training program as the military works to better integrate reserve forces into its operational planning and make its preparations more realistic. The armed forces also tested their ability to mobilize transportation resources overnight from Sunday to yesterday by using commercial flatbed trucks to transport tanks during a cross-regional reinforcement exercise in eastern Taiwan. The scenario assumed that northern Taiwan had come under attack, prompting a combined arms battalion based in Hualien County to reinforce defenses in neighboring Yilan County to the northeast. The main objective was to transport military vehicles from Hualien to Yilan overnight using civilian flatbed trailers. About 70 civilian flatbed trucks and M60A3 tanks were mobilized for the exercise. These tanks were loaded onto the trucks and transported from Hualien to Yilan via Provincial Highway No. 9 and the Suhua Highway along Taiwan’s east coast. After arriving at a designated assembly area in Yilan early yesterday, the tanks were unloaded using civilian cranes before moving to nearby strategic positions. The transport exercise lasted about five hours. The battalion continued the exercise yesterday morning, simulating the defense of Yilan’s coast against an enemy force. Additional reporting by Liu Hsiao-hsin Taiwanese travelers could face exit restrictions as China expands government control under new regulations, an analyst said yesterday. China’s State Council has released new exit and entry regulations that expand the authorities’ power to restrict travel. Hung Pu-chao (洪浦釗), deputy head of Tunghai University’s Center for Mainland China and Regional Development Research, said the new regulations focus on managing cross-border activities as a whole, bringing the movement of talent, technology, information and social networks under the scope of national security oversight. The 19-part rules, which take effect on Sept. 15, were issued by Beijing for “regulating exit and entry management, protecting legitimate Japan’s Defense White Paper released yesterday highlighted Taiwan Strait security as a major concern, saying China has expanded military activities around Taiwan, used repeated drills to normalize the presence of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and strengthened blockade, precision strike, and joint operation capabilities. Chinese military aircraft entering Taiwan’s surrounding airspace surpassed 3,700 sorties last year, a sharp increase from about 970 in 2021, the paper said, adding that Chinese naval activity around Taiwan also rose to about 2,600 sorties. Since 2022, Beijing has repeatedly conducted large-scale military drills around Taiwan, said the paper, which is titled Security for the Future. The Typhoon Dolphin was expected to make its closest approach to Taiwan yesterday afternoon through today before continuing west toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, forecasting that mountainous areas of Hsinchu and Miaoli could receive the heaviest rainfall, with precipitation expected to reach 350mm to 500mm. The rain could fall within a single day, raising the risk of torrential downpours, the agency warned. The likelihood of a land warning for Taiwan proper has been ruled out, while the chance of a land warning for outlying Lienchiang County has fallen from the previous day’s estimate, it added. If Dolphin’s track and The Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued a sea warning for Typhoon Dolphin at 2:30pm yesterday, as the storm steadily moved toward the waters north of Taiwan, with heavy or extremely heavy rain expected over the weekend in the central mountains and the north. As of 5pm yesterday, Dolphin was about 680km east-northeast of Taipei and moving west at 10kph, with maximum sustained winds of 144kph and a storm radius of 280km, CWA data showed. While the typhoon has slowed slightly, it remains within forecast expectations and would not be longer than previously predicted, CWA forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) told a news conference. The