Taiwan chokes mobile internet speeds in drill for Chinese attack

Millions of people in Taiwan were forced indoors and mobile internet speeds slowed for 30 minutes on Thursday during a simulation of a Chinese attack on the island democracy.

The drill was part of Taiwan's annual "Han Kuang" military exercise that aims to prepare the island of 23 million people for a potential Chinese invasion.

China claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex it.

Loud sirens sounded across the capital Taipei at 2:30 pm (0630 GMT), sending people into underground carparks, subway stations, shopping malls and office buildings in the annual air raid drill.

Normally busy streets became eerily quiet as police directed traffic to pull over and waved people into shelters.

This year's drill also included a reduction in mobile internet speeds for the first time, briefly stifling access to messaging apps, video calls, live streams and food delivery services during hypothetical Chinese air attacks on communications infrastructure.

"I do think that when you can't get in touch with people... other people may worry about me, and I worry about them as well," Ashley Hou, a 23-year-old graduate student, told AFP in an underground pedestrian tunnel.

"It makes you think about how you would handle the situation if (emergencies) were to happen for real," she said.

Jimmy Chu was running late for work when the drill started and he couldn't immediately respond to his boss's message asking where he was.

"I understand that this is meant to simulate an internet disruption that would likely occur in the event of a war, so even though it had negative effects, I can understand," Chu, 22, said.

A 62-year-old shopkeeper surnamed Hsu said the drills should be held "every three to six months" to raise awareness among Taiwanese who "have been living in a very safe environment." 

"Whether it's going to reflect a total internet shutdown, I think is unlikely. But I think having people get a sense of how it may feel to have an internet disruption is important," Ben Lewis of the analysis website PLATracker told AFP ahead of the drill.

"I think also to test the resilience of civilian communications and internet systems is very important," he said.

During the 10-day Han Kuang drills that end Friday, Taiwan's military staged combat scenarios for its troops and reservists to practise responding to a Chinese attack.

On Wednesday, coast guard and navy ships held a joint exercise to escort a vessel during a simulation of a Chinese blockade in waters east of the island.

An exercise in the underground carpark of a hospital near Taipei on Thursday demonstrated a war-time medical facility. 

"If I play the role of a patient and actually experience and understand the situation, I think it can help me with some of my emergency responses in the future," hospital worker Gary Chen, 39, told AFP as he lay in an intensive care unit (ICU) bed pretending to be in a critical condition.

ICU nurse Lily Ku said staff were learning "how to move the hospital beds down to the basement and make the transition."

"The resources would be different so we would simplify everything," the 30-year-old said.