Defense

China's latest round of military exercises near Taiwan at the beginning of April was intended to show it could organize large-scale drills despite an ongoing military purge, Taiwan's top intelligence chief said Wednesday.

Taiwan's Han Kuang exercises, its largest annual military drills, began Saturday, with experts saying that the extended 14 days of wargames reflected a response to China's increasing "gray zone" activities and its potential to carry out a full-scale invasion of Taiwan.

China dispatched 82 warplanes and vessels to areas near Taiwan on Wednesday, the last day of its most recent military exercises in the region, according to Taiwan's defense ministry.

Taiwan's Vice Defense Minister Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) on Friday attended the delivery ceremony of the first F-16 C/D block 70 fighter jet that the country has purchased from the United States.

Taiwan is set to receive all High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) it has purchased from the United States next year, earlier than scheduled, according to a Ministry of Defense (MND) written report to the Legislative Yuan.

The Executive Yuan planned to discuss further details about reinstating the military trial system next month, amid an increase of espionage cases involving active-duty servicemen, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said Thursday.

Two American senators have questioned the efforts of Taiwan's opposition-controlled legislature to cut the country's defense spending, with one accusing Taiwan's opposition of "playing a dangerous game."

Taiwan needs to increase its defense spending to around 10 percent of gross domestic product -- about four times what it currently spends -- to deter a war with China, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee for a top Pentagon post said Tuesday.

The government is planning to hold a small-scale exercise in Tainan on March 27 to assess Taiwan's civil defense and disaster prevention preparedness, according to a national security official.

Both the computer-aided wargames and the combat training drills of this year's Han Kuang military exercises will be extended to bolster the military's ability to conduct joint combat operations, Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) has said.