Taiwans Conducts Big Military Exercise

[Ghost in the Machine]

Published: 5/16/07, 2:45 AM EDT
By PETER ENAV
ILAN, Taiwan (AP) - Anti-aircraft missiles streaked across a hazy sky Wednesday as Taiwanese forces confronted a simulated invasion from rival China in the island's biggest military exercise of the year.

The Hankuang (Chinese Glory) war games are a test of military readiness for the self-governing island of 23 million people 58 years after it split from the mainland amid civil war.

Some 1,800 military personnel participated in Wednesday's drills, which featured Taiwanese fighter jets, frigates and helicopters repelling a mock Chinese seaborne invasion along an isolated stretch of the island's northeastern coast.

As top military brass looked on, a lethal array of Hawk, Stinger, Chaparral and other missiles took out one "Chinese" vessel after another, and neutralized the jet aircraft that were backing them up.

http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=7405&eeid=5213733&_sitecat=1505&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=-2&ck=&ch=ne&rg=blsadstrgt

[piedmont]

1. If China really wanted to take Taiwan, Taiwan's best chance would be a guerilla war.

Better stockpile the Stinger missiles and Claymore mines, Taiwan.