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Recently, Taiwan launched the annual Wan'an Exercise and Han Kuang Military Exercise, in which northern counties and cities simulated the "escape plan" of residents in the event of "military reunification" with the mainland.

The report said that soon after the exercise began, sirens sounded and vehicles and pedestrians, under the command of police and civil defense personnel on duty, took shelter in the nearest air raid shelters. Street vendors closed their doors and turned off their lights to reduce the risk of becoming a target. The exercise caused the actual shutdown of counties and cities in northern Taiwan for half an hour.

It is understood that Wan'an is a routine civil defense exercise covering Taiwan's main island and outlying islands. This year's Wan'an exercise is conducted in a regional manner, starting from the central, northern, eastern, outlying islands and southern regions in sequence.

During the exercise, the Taiwan authorities will send text messages to mobile phones through the alarm system, with the content: "Wan'an exercise air defense alarm, missiles/rocket attacks on northern Taiwan, please evacuate nearby." The message will also include the website address of the air defense evacuation shelter location and the contact number of the Taiwan Defense Department. Those who fail to comply with the exercise order and conduct drills may be fined up to NT$150,000.

The simulation of the mainland's military reunification has aroused the outside world's curiosity as to whether it is related to the tense situation across the Taiwan Strait. In response, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an explained that compared with the Wan'an exercises in previous years, this scenario simulation is indeed "a big improvement." The Taipei City Government hopes to implement the national defense awareness, so it has repeatedly emphasized "do not rely on the enemy not coming, rely on what we have to wait for it." We must be "fully prepared" and face the occurrence of various "disasters" with an attitude of "predicting the enemy leniently and defending against the enemy strictly."

Mayor Jiang used the word "enemy" three times in just a few sentences, which shows how he subconsciously views cross-strait relations. In addition, this exercise is very much aimed at the mainland, which may add some haze to the already pessimistic cross-strait relations.

On the other hand, the Wan'an Exercise was held simultaneously with the Han Kuang Exercise, which was a formal joint combat exercise. However, due to the approaching Typhoon Kemi, its scale was forced to be reduced, and many exercises such as the Air Force's anti-airborne and anti-landing exercises were suspended.

According to Taiwanese media reports, when Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te visited Hualien to inspect the live-fire exercises of the air force participating in the Han Kuang Exercise, he said that he saw the exercise results and high morale of the participating officers and soldiers. He expressed his affirmation of the Taiwan military's solid training and its spirit of being ready to defend Taiwan at any time, and hoped that they would continue to focus on various exercises and training in the upcoming exercises.

Lai Ching-te said that all Taiwan troops are an important force in safeguarding Taiwan's security, and he hopes that officers and soldiers can continue to "improve their combat effectiveness" and let the world see the Taiwan military's "determination to safeguard Taiwan."

In fact, long before the Han Kuang exercise, Lai Ching-te's office issued a statement requiring the Taiwan military to enhance its asymmetric combat capabilities, utilize the straits and geographical environment around the Taiwan Strait, build a multi-level defense depth, and build a "defense and multi-layered deterrence" strategy to ensure "Taiwan's security."

Later, during an internal meeting of the DPP, Lai Ching-te openly called for establishing "Taiwan's subjectivity identity" and building a "subjective Taiwan, democratic Taiwan."

In this regard, Chen Binhua, spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, pointed out that Lai Ching-te's so-called "identity of Taiwan's subjectivity" once again exposed his stubborn "Taiwan independence" stance. He called on the majority of Taiwan compatriots to resolutely oppose the "Taiwan independence" provocations of Lai Ching-te and the DPP authorities based on national justice, Taiwan's future and their own welfare and interests, and jointly promote peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait.

It is not difficult to see that Lai Qingde's above-mentioned move is a gradual process. The so-called establishment of "recognition of Taiwan's subjectivity" is actually a "Taiwan independence" speech that goes one step further than "the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are not subordinate to each other". Not only is it not concealed at all, but it is even more blatant, making cross-strait relations even worse.

Lai Ching-te wants to gamble the lives and interests of Taiwan's military and civilians on his delusion of "Taiwan independence". This is a gamble that is bound to fail. I sincerely hope that the people of Taiwan will open their eyes and not blindly "bet" with the "Taiwan independence" fanatics who are seeking their own destruction.