Video shows how Chinese army would strike Taiwan

Chinese magazine marks the ruling CCP’s ­centenary by releasing an attack plan, which includes missile barrage and surprise raid.

Xi Jinping delivers his fiery speech from Tiananmen Gate last Thursday. Picture: Reuters

A Chinese magazine has marked the ruling Communist Party’s ­centenary by releasing a video simulating a military attack on Taiwan. It follows a warning by President Xi Jinping that any move to separate the island ­nation from China would be ­resolutely opposed.

“Let’s together make the deafening voice: Taiwan independence is a dead-end road,” declared Naval and Merchant Ships, a magazine published by the Chinese Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.

A Chinese navy missile destroyer fires a shell during joint naval exercises in the Yellow Sea. Picture: AP

It said on social media that the 11-minute video was a compilation of “wisdom and innovative ideas” by its director, scriptwriters and many web users on “Taiwan liberation”.

The video shows China launching hundreds of missiles and taking the Taiwanese forces by surprise.

Taiwan’s warning system fails, and its fighter jets are destroyed before they can take off. After disabling Taiwan’s anti-air missiles, Chinese forces sink its warships.

Mr Xi delivered a speech from Tiananmen Gate, in Beijing, to mark the party’s centenary last week in which he said: “We must take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward ‘Taiwan independence”.

“No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said to long applause from the 70,000 people in Tiananmen Square.

A Chinese navy formation in the South China Sea. Picture: AFP

Beijing considers Taiwan to be part of Chinese territory and has vowed to unify it, by force if necessary.

“Resolving the Taiwan question and realising China’s complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakable commitment of the Communist Party of China,” Mr Xi said.

Taiwan, which has its own democratically elected government, views it differently. Tsai Ing-wen, who was elected as President of Taiwan in 2016, ­refuses to acknowledge the One China policy.

While the Chinese military could overwhelm Taiwanese forces, Beijing must consider the US, which has a security pact to supply the island with sufficient hardware and technology to deter any mainland invasion.

THE TIMES