TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's first privately organized defense simulation focusing on potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait will take place Tuesday and Wednesday at National Chengchi University, one of Taiwan's premier academic institutions, officials announced on Sunday (June 8). The Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation (財團法人台北政經學院基金會), a prominent Taiwanese think tank, will conduct the unprecedented war game at the university's Center for Public and Business Administration Education (政大公企中心). Foundation Chairman Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄) and former Taiwan naval chief Lee Hsi-ming (李喜明), who now heads the Center for Peace and Security (CPAS, 和平與安全中心), will jointly oversee the high-level military exercise.
The two-day simulation will bring together an unprecedented assembly of military expertise, including nine generals and eight lieutenant generals from multiple countries, according to the foundation's statement. This concentration of high-ranking military leadership makes the exercise the most senior-level defense simulation ever conducted outside official government channels in Taiwan. The organizers have designed the war game specifically to analyze the growing military pressure from China across the Taiwan Strait and to project various conflict scenarios that might emerge within the next five years as regional tensions continue to escalate.
The simulation has attracted several international military heavyweights to Taipei, underscoring the exercise's significance amid rising regional tensions. Participants include former U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen and former U.S. Pacific Command Commander Dennis Blair, both of whom bring extensive experience in America's Indo-Pacific strategy. The Japanese contingent features former Chiefs of Japanese Self-Defense Forces Joint Staff Shigeru Iwasaki (岩崎茂) and former Chief of Staff of Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) Tomohisa Takei (武居智久), representing critical perspectives from Taiwan's northeastern neighbor.
The war game will employ a classic tabletop exercise format with participants strategically divided into five distinct teams representing the major stakeholders in any potential Taiwan Strait conflict. The simulation's Taiwan team will operate under the leadership of retired Army General Hu Chen-pu (胡鎮埔) and retired Air Force General Liao Jung-hsin (廖榮鑫), bringing multi-domain military expertise to the defense scenarios. Retired General Hsu Yen-pu (徐衍璞), known for his strategic insights, will direct the China team, tasked with developing realistic approaches that might be employed by Chinese military forces in various conflict scenarios.
According to foundation officials, the sophisticated simulation scenarios have been meticulously crafted by the Council on Strategic and Wargaming Studies, an organization specializing in military planning exercises. Former naval chief Lee and the association's Director-General Huang Chieh-cheng (黃介正), a respected defense analyst, will supervise the proceedings throughout the two-day event. The exercise aims to produce tangible policy recommendations by carefully evaluating potential U.S. and Japanese military assistance plans under various crisis scenarios, ultimately contributing substantive analysis to ongoing discussions about Taiwan Strait security challenges. ◼