Residents practiced fleeing their apartment buildings and flocking to underground parking garages on Thursday afternoon, as air raid sirens blared across Taiwan’s capital region, home to 7 million people. In the city’s main stadium — which usually hosts pop concerts and basketball games — army reservists in red bibs simulated distributing rice, cooking oil and other emergency rations. Classrooms at an elementary school became mock operating theaters and first aid stations. Across this city, everyone from office workers and retirees to firefighters and doctors practiced what to do if one day China were to invade, holding “whole of society” drills that were unprecedented in scale and complexity, according to Taiwanese officials and analysts. “In the past it was more about evacuation,” said Lee Juwen, a local government employee in Songshan District, as she took shelter from a mock missile attack. “This year is especially about what is really needed if a war breaks out. When something happens, we will know immediately what to do.” Taiwan has been preparing for a Chinese assault for decades. The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, but it claims the self-governing island democracy as part of its territory and regularly threatens to use force to bring it under control. But this year’s Han Kuang military exercises have lasted 10 days — double last year’s length — and called up 22,000 reservists, up from only 14,500 last year.

Full report : Sirens and evacuations as Taipei rehearses to counter China invasion threat.