Taiwan's military began deploying one of its newest and most precise strike weapons on July 12, ahead of live-fire drills meant to showcase the island's determination to resist any Chinese invasion.
Two armoured trucks with HIMARS—High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems—were seen manoeuvring around the city of Taichung near Taiwan's central coast on the fourth of ten days of its most comprehensive annual exercises yet. The live-fire portion of the Han Kuang drills is expected next week.
Regional military attachés say the HIMARS deployment in a warlike exercise will be closely watched, given that they have been used extensively by Ukraine against Russian forces.
China claims the self-ruled island of Taiwan as its own, despite the fact that Taiwan is a de facto independent country, with its own military, democratically elected government, and constitution. China's communist regime has intensified military pressure around the island over the last five years, staging a string of intense war games and daily naval and air force patrols around the island.