Taiwan blocks Taipei-area bridge in China invasion drill

Taiwanese troops blocked the recently opened Danjiang Bridge near Taipei with concrete barriers, barbed wire and Hesco walls in an overnight drill to practise stopping a possible Chinese advance on the capital.

The exercise took place on Thursday, the second day of Taiwan's annual Han Kuang military drills. The bridge spans the mouth of the Tamsui River, an area military experts see as important in a potential invasion scenario.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize the island of 23 million people.

Chieh Chung, a defence policy expert at Tamkang University, told AFP that if Chinese forces controlled the Danjiang Bridge and both sides of the Tamsui River estuary, landing bases on either side of the river could effectively be linked.

Taiwanese army combat engineers, using cranes and trucks, set up layers of barriers along the nearly one-kilometre bridge. The aim was to slow advancing forces and channel them into areas where Taiwanese troops would have more firepower.

In the water below, troops deployed fishing nets, floating platforms and barrels that could potentially be filled with explosives during wartime to stop small Chinese vessels entering the river. The drill was due to end on Friday morning before peak-hour traffic.

The bridge exercise followed other Han Kuang drills. President Lai Ching-te visited nearby Taipei Port, where he observed missiles and mines being loaded onto ships. On Wednesday night, Lai was escorted in an armoured convoy from the Presidential Office to a secure command centre in a simulated evacuation.

The Han Kuang exercise began on August 5 and runs until August 14. Defence officials have said the drills test responses to an attack on Taiwan, including drone operations, civilian readiness, wartime production, supply escorts during a simulated Chinese blockade and decentralised battlefield command.