China creates Taipei mockup to train for invasion | Taiwan News

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese defense analyst on Tuesday (March 26) posted satellite images of a mockup of the heart of Taipei designed for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to train in seizing Taiwan’s capital.

Joseph Wen (温約瑟, X, @JosephWen___) posted https://twitter.com/JosephWen___/status/1772446247795708023 of a mockup of the Bo’ai Special Zone (博愛特區), which is a restricted zone in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District where the Presidential Office Building and other key government buildings are located. The training ground is located in the Alxa Left Banner administrative division of the Alxa League in the southwest of China’s Inner Mongolia.

Wen said in the past, the PLA had created a Presidential Office Building replica in another location. However, he said this mockup covered much of the Bo’ai Special Zone and appears to be an aerial bombing and gunnery training range.

Lu Te-yun (盧德允), a satellite imagery expert who once served as an inspector for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) told UDN that the proportions of the training grounds need to be measured. However, Lu said that “visually speaking, the degree of realism in comparison with the actual location is quite high.”

When asked to comment about the mockup before attending a session of the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday (March 27), Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said that any country can imitate whatever facilities another country possesses, per CNA. Chiu said the Taiwanese military can also simulate certain locations and conduct assault exercises.

Chiu said Taiwan’s defense operations in the Taiwan Strait and Penghu are defensive, so it is inevitable there are many simulated scenarios set up by external forces regarding Taiwan. He added the mockup shows where China’s focus lies.

On the TVBS program “Situation Room” on Wednesday, former Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said that given Taiwan’s extensive air defenses, it is unlikely that the PLA could swiftly launch a decapitation strike on Taipei. Lin said, “This is psychological and cognitive warfare. China will not relax and will continue to put pressure on Taiwan, telling Taiwan that it can negotiate or fight, simultaneously employing a dual strategy of negotiation and confrontation.”