Taiwan’s armed forces have simulated repelling an enemy air-and-sea assault on the strategically important Penghu Islands as part of the island’s annual Han Kuang military exercises.

Troops used M60A3 tanks, artillery and anti-aircraft weapons during the pre-dawn exercise. The military described the operation as a multi-layered defence against an enemy attempting a rapid coastal landing.

Penghu lies in the Taiwan Strait and is considered strategically important because it could be targeted or used as a staging point during a larger attack on Taiwan.

Reservists also participated as Taiwan works to integrate reserve forces more closely into operational planning.

Mobile Internet Deliberately Slowed

In an unusual civil-defence test, authorities planned to deliberately reduce mobile-internet speeds in central Taiwan for the first time.

The exercise was designed to examine how people and emergency services would communicate if bandwidth became limited during a military conflict or major natural disaster.

Authorities said essential systems—including emergency calls, ATMs and traffic signals—would remain operational. Landline and fixed-internet services were also not expected to be affected.

A similar test is scheduled for northern Taiwan, including Taipei, on Thursday.

China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has not renounced the use of force to take control of the island. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claim and says its future must be decided by its people.