Taiwan holds annual military drill with 'determination to protect sovereignty'

Taiwan’s capital staged air raid drills Monday and its military mobilised for routine defence exercises, coinciding with concerns over a forceful Chinese response to a possible visit to the island by U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

While there was no direct link between China’s renewed threats and Taiwan’s defensive moves, they underscore the possibility of a renewed crisis in the Taiwan Strait, considered a potential hotspot for conflict that could envelop the entire region.

Air raid sirens were sounded in the capital Taipei and the military was holding its annual multi-day Han Kuang drills, including joint air and sea exercises and the mobilisation of tanks and troops.

In Taipei, police directed people to shelters when a siren went off shortly after lunchtime. Streets emptied and shops closed.

“In recent years, Chinese military planes have frequently harassed 

China’s authoritarian ruling Communist Party considers democratic, self-ruling Taiwan its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary, and regularly advertises that threat by staging military exercises and flying warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone or across the centerline of the 180 kilometre wide Taiwan Strait.

Beijing says those actions are aimed at deterring advocates of the island’s formal independence and foreign allies — principally the U.S. — from interfering, more than 70 years after the sides split amid civil war.