Taiwan’s Tsai oversees first war games

PINGTUNG, Taiwan: Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen urged the island’s army to improve its performance after a string of accidents, promising to help upgrade equipment as she presided over military drills on Thursday.

The war games in the southern county of Pingtung, the first of Tsai’s presidency, are part of an annual military exercise which simulates incoming attacks from China, the biggest threat to Taiwan’s security.

Relations with the mainland have grown increasing frosty since Tsai won the island’s presidency in January. Beijing is highly suspicious of Tsai, whose Democratic Progressive Party is traditionally pro-independence, and has warned her against any attempt at a formal breakaway.

Tsai said on Thursday that Taiwan’s army "needs a set of firm directions" and instructed the defence ministry to work on updating its military strategy.

"Some of the challenges faced by our army come from external structural limitations, others are because our performance isn’t good enough," she said at a Pingtung army base after watching fighter jets and tanks fire live rounds.

Thursday’s war games included more than 100 paratroopers mimicking enemies attempting to invade an army base.

Wearing a bullet-proof vest and helmet, Tsai told soldiers and spectators that the military has been too slow upgrading its equipment and pledged to make the issue a priority.