Taiwan’s military fired rockets in China’s direction from a US-supplied mobile launching system in a drill, demonstrating how it might try to repel a Chinese attack. The U.S.-supplied system, known as HIMARS, has been tested before, but the latest live-fire exercise was the first time its rockets were fired into the waters of the narrow Taiwan Strait that separates the self-governing island from China.

US Support for Taiwan

The United States does not recognize Taiwan as a country, but it opposes any change to its status by force and is its main supplier of weaponry for its defense. The HIMARS, which stands for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, is part of a U.S.-encouraged shift in strategy, toward an asymmetric approach designed to keep China at bay rather than trying to go head-to-head with big-ticket weapons purchases.

The military said it used reduced-range practice rockets that don’t fly very far from the coast before falling into the water. China views Taiwan as a renegade province and says it must come under its control at some point in the future. It sends warships and planes into the skies and waters near the island almost every day and has held major military exercises in its vicinity in recent years.

Original reporting: KTSA News/Talk (San Antonio) — read the source article.