TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Following a series of training drills in March that simulated offensive beach landings in northern Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced that another series of amphibious assault exercises will be held in April, this time in southern Taiwan.



The military will carry out defensive and offensive amphibious landing drills on April 12-13 on the shores of Taitung County. The staging area will be Jhihben Beach, just south of Taitung City, and the Navy’s 151st Amphibious Fleet will be in charge of managing the operations, LTN reported.



Jhihben Beach is one of Taiwan’s 14 “Red Beaches” identified as potential coastal areas that China may target to launch an invasion. The name was coined in the 2017 book “The Chinese Invasion Threat: Taiwan’s Defense and American Strategy in Asia,” by analyst Ian Easton.

An anonymous source within Taiwan’s military told LTN that Taiwan is stepping up its combat training to repel attacks on the country’s shorelines. In recent years, China has drastically increased production of its Type 0075 amphibious assault ship, which will be instrumental in any Chinese invasion.

Taiwan’s amphibious assault exercises are meant to prepare troops to deal with contingencies involving Type 075 ships across the varying terrain of all the “Red Beaches” along the country’s coasts.

Additional amphibious assault exercises in southern Taiwan are also scheduled on April 19-20, as well as April 27-28, according to the Navy’s announcement.