❓WHAT HAPPENED: Satellite images reveal China has expanded a mock-up “city” of Taiwanese administrative buildings at a military training base in Inner Mongolia, tripling the site’s size since 2020.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Taiwan’s leadership, and analysts from the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals (JINF).
📍WHEN & WHERE: The Zhurihe Combined Tactics Training Base in Inner Mongolia, with expansions noted between 2020 and 2023.
💬KEY QUOTE: “By adding a ‘mock Judicial Yuan’ and even building an underground tunnel, the PLA is sending a message to Taiwan—that even if you build escape routes, there will be no way out.” – JINF researcher Maki Nakagawa
🎯IMPACT: Analysts suggest the site is used for realistic invasion training and psychological warfare, increasing tensions between China and Taiwan.
New satellite photos suggest China is significantly expanding a mock city modeled on the administrative center of Taiwan‘s capital, Taipei. The site, located at the Zhurihe Combined Tactics Training Base in Inner Mongolia, now includes structures resembling Taiwan’s Presidential Office and Judicial Yuan, and has tripled in size since 2020.
The Zhurihe base, the largest training site for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), spans an area nearly the size of Los Angeles. It is designed to simulate realistic battlefield conditions, with analysts suggesting the replicas are used to train for a potential “decapitation operation” targeting Taiwan’s leadership.
Analysis by the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals (JINF), published on October 1, highlighted the addition of a 280-meter underground tunnel connecting the mock Judicial Yuan to the Presidential Office. Satellite imagery also shows a red-roofed building resembling Taiwan’s National Defense Reserve Command Headquarters. The think tank noted frequent PLA training exercises at the site, simulating attacks on these structures.
Maki Nakagawa, a researcher at Japan‘s National Institute for Information Research, stated in the Japanese press: “Under the Xi Jinping administration, the Zhurihe training base has been rapidly expanded for realistic combat preparation. By adding a ‘mock Judicial Yuan’ and even building an underground tunnel, the PLA is sending a message to Taiwan—that even if you build escape routes, there will be no way out.”
China’s Communist Party claims Taiwan as its territory, despite never having ruled the island. President Xi Jinping has called unification “inevitable,” while Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, responded in a recent speech: “Unity ensures victory, while aggression inevitably fails.”
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