Taiwan Troops Drill Defending Danjiang Bridge in War Games
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- Taiwanese troops practiced defending the Danjiang Bridge on August 6 during the Han Kuang exercises, erecting barriers, barbed wire, and sandbag positions during a late-night operation while cyclists and pedestrians continued using the unblocked section of the span.
- The Han Kuang exercises kicked off August 5 and run for 10 days, focusing on combat readiness against a potential attack from China, which regards the island as its own territory and has vowed to bring it under control by force if necessary.
- The Danjiang Bridge, which opened earlier in 2026, is the world's longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge and crosses the entrance to the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, just outside the capital.
- Chieh Chung of Taiwan's Institute for National Defence and Security Research warned that if invading forces seized the bridge, they could rapidly move troops and supplies from landing sites on the southern bank of the Tamsui River to the northern bank and into Taipei's outer perimeter.
- The exercise did not simulate full bridge closure but was designed to gather data on how quickly engineers could deploy obstacles and what resources would be required to seal the crossing in wartime.
Why it matters: The drill targets a defined wartime vulnerability rather than abstract readiness: a single bridge whose capture would let Chinese amphibious forces bypass the Tamsui River defense line and drive directly into Taipei from northern beachheads. By timing engineer obstacle deployment under live conditions, Taiwan is generating concrete data that feeds directly into its defensive plan for repelling a cross-strait invasion.
