PENGHU, Taiwan – In the pre-dawn darkness on an island in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwanese troops earlier this month pulled long, gleaming 105mm shells from their green plastic canisters. After all the ammunition had been checked and safely loaded through hatches on four tanks, troops waited silently for the order to fire.
The soldiers are among the thousands of troops that form a garrison on the Penghu Islands and they are training for war with China. If Beijing decides to attack, they will be on Taiwan’s frontline.
A popular tourist destination known for its pristine beaches and coral reefs, this strategically crucial cluster of 90 islands and islets, about 50km off the southwest coast of the main island of Taiwan, would be hit in the first wave of an attempted Chinese invasion, according to senior Taiwanese security officials and military experts.
For Taiwan, holding Penghu would allow its forces to resist a Chinese invasion fleet heading towards the main island of Taiwan, the security experts said. To ensure that Chinese ships and planes don’t become targets, Beijing must seize Penghu or destroy the garrison’s long-range missiles.
If PLA ships tried to attack Taiwan while bypassing Penghu, these ships “could be struck by missiles from Penghu,” said Su Tzu-yun of Taiwan’s top military think tank, the Institute for National Defense and Security Research. “That forces the PLA to attack Penghu before it can attack Taiwan,” he said, referring to China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army.
By deploying longer-range weapons such as Hsiung Feng III missiles on Penghu, a senior Taiwanese official told Reuters, Taiwan could also make it harder for the PLA to assemble forces along the Chinese coast for an invasion. These forces could be targeted even before they set out across the Strait.
If Penghu were taken, the entire Taiwan Strait would effectively fall into China’s hands, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Taipei has been investing in Penghu’s defense, including running programs to beef up the resilience of the 110,000 people who live on the islands in the event of war. Beijing, which is engaged in a major military buildup, has not renounced the use of force against Taiwan.
China’s quest to take control of Taiwan is at the heart of the battle between Beijing and Washington for broader control in the Asia-Pacific region. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its territory and President Xi Jinping has ordered the PLA to be ready to seize the island by 2027, U.S. officials have said. Taipei says it is already independent and that its future can be decided only by the Taiwanese people.
China’s defense ministry did not respond to questions about Penghu. Ministry spokesperson Jiang Bin told reporters this year that Taiwan’s plans to fortify the islands were “increasingly absurd and delusional” and that Taipei faced “total destruction” if it provoked war.
We absolutely need to have a sense of crisis… [The Penghu Islands] would definitely be one of the first places attacked.
Chen Chen-chung, chief of Huxi township
Taiwan’s defense ministry declined to comment on combat plans for Penghu, while the Pentagon did not respond to questions.
For the troops waiting in the dark at the August 10 drill on the main island of the Penghu group, the quiet was shattered when artillery guns nestled under camouflage netting fired illumination rounds out to sea. These shells burst with a crump in the distance, casting brilliant light over the ocean approaches.
In a series of maneuvers, the four tanks, along with armored personnel carriers, wheeled forward through clouds of dust, exhaust fumes and explosive gases, blasting away at “invaders” attempting to land. As sunlight crept across the sea, artillery, mortars and infantry poured fire down over the ocean below. Orange-red tracers from machine guns arced into the sky.
The live-fire drill on the sixth day of the annual Han Kuang exercises was part of rehearsals across Taiwan to resist landings by air and sea. In the same week, the Navy’s Coastal Operations Command deployed to Penghu for the first time, sending powerful Hsiung Feng missile launch vehicles to beachfront positions in anti-ship and anti-landing operations, Taiwan military officials briefed on the matter told Reuters.
Penghu’s strategic location, along with the presence of such weapons, makes the islands a prime target for the PLA, according to Su. Taiwan’s two other major offshore islands, Kinmen and Matsu, were too close to China to be a useful part of a defensive network, he said.
But, he added, Taiwanese forces could catch invading Chinese ships in a crossfire of missiles between the Penghu Islands and the main island of Taiwan. Missiles on the islands could also launch “counter strikes” further into China’s hinterland, he said.
