Taiwan tests instant war response as China threat intensifies

Taiwan’s military began five days of immediate combat readiness drills on Monday as Defense Minister Wellington Koo said the island must prove it can respond at once if China turns a routine exercise into an attack. The exercise is built around a scenario in which warning time collapses from days to hours or minutes, forcing Taiwan to shift from peacetime posture to wartime footing without hesitation.

The "Immediate Combat Readiness Exercise" tests how each defense zone responds and how the Army, Navy and Air Force work together. The drills are meant to verify that units can move fast enough under pressure. Taiwan says its forces could respond rapidly to a sudden Chinese attack by using decentralized command so frontline units do not have to wait for orders from above.

On Tuesday, China’s newest aircraft carrier, the Fujian, sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the first such mission in the sensitive waterway since April. The ship first crossed the strait during trials in September 2025 and later transited again after formally entering service in December 2025.

Beijing answered the drills with its own warning. Zhang Han, spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, accused Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party of seeking independence by force, said the drills showed "malicious intent to seek independence by force," and called the exercises futile and harmful to Taiwan. China says it will never renounce the use of force against Taiwan.

The Immediate Combat Readiness Exercise was first launched in March 2025, and Taiwan has increasingly emphasized realistic war-simulation training. During other recent drills, Taiwan fired its U.S.-made HIMARS rocket system into the Taiwan Strait, and the main Han Kuang exercises are expected in August.