PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Taiwan is staging its largest-ever live-fire military exercise involving a mock mainland Chinese invasion, according to news reports.
The presence of two foreign ships nearby forced it to cancel some tests, reports Compuserve's NewsForum. More than 6,000 soldiers from all branches joined the "Han Kuang 19" (Han Glory) exercise, which was held off the northeastern coast of the island nation. Observing was President Chen Shui-Bian, who warned that China would likely use long-range weapons to attack Taiwan.
French-made Mirage fighter jets, U.S.-made F-16 fighters, indigenous defensive fighters, Super Cobra attack helicopters and French-made frigates were among the hardware displayed. Taiwan also unveiled a 170-ton ship designed to reduce radar-detection and fired a Hsiungfeng II ship-to-ship missile.
During part of the exercise, the Taiwnanese military scrapped plans to fire a long-range air-to-air missile after spotting Chinese and Japanese vessels in the area. The Taiwanese army said it did not want any ships in the area to gather sensitive data from its firing of missiles.
