Taiwan completes first civil defense drills as tensions escalate with China

Taiwan carried out its first “whole of society” civil defense drills Thursday, aimed at preparing for a possible imminent attack by China or another emergency.

“We should rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him,” Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said; more drills are scheduled for April.

China completed its own military exercises near the island earlier this month — these have been increasingly frequent since Lai took office last year. He is the first Taiwanese leader to designate China a “hostile foreign force.”

With the drills, Lai is crafting a new deterrence approach, an expert argued: “By changing the Taiwanese people’s perceptions of China’s military threat and realizing their own agency to address it, Lai is seeking to empower the Taiwanese people.”