Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/12/2020
By: Matt Yu, Lai Yen-hsi and Emerson Lim

Taipei, May 12 (CNA) Taiwan said Tuesday that contingency plans are in place for its outlying islands in the South China Sea, following a Japanese media report that the Chinese military is planning to conduct drills in the area to simulate the seizure of one of the islands.

Japan's Kyodo News reported that day that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is planning to hold a large-scale beach landing exercise near China's Hainan Province in August, with a scenario of capturing the Dongsha Islands (Pratas Islands), currently controlled by Taiwan.

The report, which did not cite its sources, said the Dongsha Islands are significant to Beijing as they sit at a strategic point, because Chinese warships have to sail by them when going to the Pacific from Hainan Province.

Responding to this, Maj. Gen. Lin Wen-huang (林文皇), who heads an operations and planning office at the Ministry of National Defense (MND), said at a press conference that the ministry is monitoring movements of "hostile forces" through intelligence gathering and surveillance.
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