Satellite imagery shows China has further expanded its mock-up of Taiwan’s administrative center at a military training base in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The site—centered on a replica of the building housing Taiwan’s Presidential Office—is now triple the size it was in 2020, according to an analysis by the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals (JINF) think tank, as Beijing continues its military pressure against Taipei.
Why It Matters
The Zhurihe Combined Tactics Training Base, the People’s Liberation Army’s largest training site, covers an area nearly the size of Los Angeles. The sprawling complex is designed to replicate realistic battlefield conditions across a diverse range of terrains.
Analysts say the Taipei replicas are meant to strengthen training for a potential “decapitation operation” targeting Taiwan’s leadership.
China claims Taiwan as its territory, though Beijing’s Communist Party government has never ruled the island. President Xi Jinping has declared unification “inevitable,” and the People’s Liberation Army has stepped up operations around Taiwan while rapidly building out its invasion capabilities.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese and Taiwanese Foreign Ministries via email with requests for comment outside office hours.
Work on the Judicial Yuan began in August 2020 and was largely completed by 2021, according to the think tank, which also noted what it described as a 280-meter (918-foot) underground tunnel linking the structure with the “Presidential Office.”
Satellite imagery also shows a red-roofed building opposite the judiciary. JINF said it resembles a structure within Taiwan’s National Defense Reserve Command Headquarters, the agency tasked with mobilizing military reserves.
The site has expanded to three times its original size over the past five years, and satellite images have frequently detected Chinese training exercises.
Armored vehicles were observed clearing obstacles set by mock defending forces before advancing toward the presidential and foreign ministry replicas in a simulation apparently geared toward neutralizing the island’s leadership, JINF told the outlet.
The site may also be intended to serve as a tool of psychological warfare against Taiwan, the think tank said.
What People Have Said
Maki Nakagawa, a researcher at the National Institute for Information Research, was quoted by the Sankei Shimbun: “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 [People’s Liberation Army] is sending a message to Taiwan—that even if you build escape routes, there will be no way out.”
Lai Ching-te, president of Taiwan, said in a September 2 speech to military personnel: “In recent years, the Chinese communists have persistently conducted high-intensity activities with military aircraft and vessels around the Taiwan Strait…unity ensures victory, while aggression inevitably fails.”
Guo Jiakun, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said during a September 29 press conference: “The future of the Taiwan region lies in the reunification of China…Nothing whatsoever will ever stop China’s reunification.”
What’s Next
U.S. officials have said they believe Xi has ordered the Chinese military to be capable of taking Taiwan by 2027, though they stress this does not necessarily mean he has chosen that—or any—specific year to move against the self-ruled island.
