Lai Oversees Coastal Strike Drill in Taiwan's Han Kuang War Games
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- Lai Ching-te boarded a fast attack missile boat at a Kaohsiung navy base on Aug 8, broadcasting to sailors and emphasizing that the Han Kuang exercise uses "live troops, live terrain and live equipment" to test command coordination and homeland defence.
- Taiwan launched the Han Kuang exercises on Aug 5 for a 10-day run, explicitly focused on combat readiness against a Chinese invasion; Lai pledged to give the military and coast guard "the greatest support" without naming China directly.
- Anping-class coast guard catamarans joined the drills, including low-flying attack drones swarming over beach and sea; the Anping ships are based on the navy's Tuo Chiang-class vessels, which Taiwan's military dubs the "aircraft carrier killer" for their anti-ship missiles.
- Lai had watched missile launchers being installed on an Anping-class coast guard ship on Aug 6, underscoring the coast guard's role as a wartime naval reserve.
- China views Lai as a "separatist" and has rejected his repeated offers of talks, maintaining its claim that Taiwan is Chinese territory and vowing to bring it under its control by force if necessary.
Why it matters: Taiwan is mobilizing its coast guard as a wartime naval reserve by deploying Anping-class catamarans—ships built on the hull of the Tuo Chiang-class anti-ship missile platform—into the Han Kuang exercises, giving Beijing a concrete new capability to track during its war planning. Lai's direct, on-boat participation signals that political leadership is publicly tying its legitimacy to repelling a Chinese invasion rather than managing cross-strait tensions diplomatically.
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