on something like this. and, rupert, what has china s response been? well, if you like, this is a response to what china has been doing. because if you remember, think back to this time last year, nancy pelosi, the house speaker, was visiting taiwan and it caused a huge response from beijing, from china, and it held the biggest ever military exercises around taiwan, both naval and air exercises that went on for many days. they fired ballistic missiles over the top of taiwan into the pacific ocean. it was a real attempt to intimidate taiwan and say, we will not accept you having closer relations with united states, we will accept you having more diplomatic close ties with other countries, because we do not consider you to be a country. and if you like, since then, in the last 12 months taiwan has been taking that much more seriously, taking the threat from china much more seriously and taking its own defence more seriously. and i think this exercise this week, what the taiwanese
in the last few minutes you can see the troops moving around on the ground, taiwanese troops repelling that simulated attack. a gun battle happening on the ground here behind me. of course, this is all a show, this is all for practice, it is not real. but the interesting thing about this is it is very much inspired by what happened in ukraine last year when the russian invasion happened and russian forces attempted to seize an airport outside kyiv in the first few hours of that invasion and to use that to bring in more forces, that assault repelled and the russian attack on kyiv ultimately failed. what the taiwanese have learned from that is that if ever there is an attack on taiwan by china this is how it will happen. they will attempt to seize key infrastructure like the international airport. and that s why they closed down the airport behind me here this morning, completely, for the first time ever to carry out this kind of practice to get troops to know how to repel an attack
parts of its annual military drills that began monday. the drills test taiwan s defences in case of an attack from china. this year s tests were set to simulate a response to an attack on its main airport and a china led blockade. one such drill is ongoing, despite the expected typhoon. i spoke with bbc s rupert wingfield hayes who has been given exclusive access to one of these exercises. tell us more how the jewels are simulating and how extensive they. the drills. yeah, you can see from where i m standing on this rooftop overlooking taiwan s international airport that the typhoon is doing a lot of interference with the military exercises here, the winds are getting very strong. we have just seen in the last half hour a mock attack on the airport behind me here using attack helicopters and assault helicopters landing troops here on the runway behind me, simulating an attack by china across the taiwan strait and landing here trying to seize the international airport.
considered available for military service until they are 55. a federaljudge vacated former army sergeant bowe bergdahl s conviction and dishonorable discharge on tuesday. bergdahl left his post in afghanistan and was captured by the taliban in 2009. he was held captive for nearly five years, and was repeately tortured during that time. bergdahl was returned to the us in a prisoner swap for five taliban leaders in 2014. in 2017, bergdahl pled guilty to desertion and misbehavior. he was dishonorably discharged and ordered to forfeit $10,000 in pay. bergdahl s conviction and sentence had been narrowly upheld by military appeals courts before his lawyers took the case to us district court, resulting in tuesday s ruling. taiwan is bracing for what could be the strongest typhoon to hit the island in four years. the typhoon, named doksuri, is headed towards taiwan and the philippines. taiwan s weather bureau has issued warnings for strong winds and heavy rains. it s forced taiwan to cancel
government and its military are saying to the people of taiwan and, if you like, to the united states and other allies is, we are now very serious about our defence, we are going to spend more, we re to increase the length of military service, we are going to do much more realistic practising to defend our island like this today. and they re showing to us, the media, and saying, if you ever doubted we would defend our island then don t, because we will. rupert, thank you very much for reporting. chinese state media are reporting that the country s foreign minister, qin gang, has been removed from his post after less than seven months on the job. he has not been seen in public for a month. a statement mentioning an apparent health problem has since been wiped from the record. an official statement named china s top diplomat, wang yi, as his replacement. the us house of representatives select committee on china is looking into us investments in chinese technology companies. the