Why China's New Inner Mongolian Training Ground Has an Eerie Feel to It

April 1, 2024 by Matt Vespa

It’s not just ethnocentric nationalistic bluster—China is determined to unite the mainland with Taiwan. Beijing’s goal has been to wait, like the coming and going of the tides, concerning whether they can feel Washington out on this matter. They now see a frail, weak old man in Joe Biden. 

The United States has a soft pledge to defend Taiwan should there be Chinese military action. We’ve sent arms shipments for decades to prepare them for that. Taiwan’s top military objective should hostilities break out isn’t to win a war against China; it’s to hold out until the Americans arrive. Biden, despite his dementia, pledged to defend the island should China invade two years ago. 

So, as we begin Taiwan invasion season regarding weather conditions for the straits, it seems Beijing is preparing to make good on its invasion promise. It might not be this year—it probably won’t—but operations to seize the presidential palace in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, appears to be part of the new war games in the Mongolian desert, site of China’s latest military training camp (via Newsweek): 

“New satellite images show a mock version of Taiwan's Presidential Office at a military training site in China's Inner Mongolia. 

The new military training site was initially identified on X, formerly Twitter, by a user posting under the handle @sfx_ewss. 

"Another #PLA mock target of #Taiwan presidential office in Alxa League, Inner Mongolia, #China," the user wrote on March 25. 

Earlier in March, a senior U.S. admiral told the U.S. Armed Services Committee about threats China's military modernization under leader Xi Jinping posed to Taiwan, saying the People's Liberation Army could be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. 

[…] 

Open-source imagery on Sinergise's Sentinel Hub website showed that construction of the office at the training site in Alxa League began in March 2021 and was almost complete by October 2021. Newsweek has accessed the latest satellite imagery confirming the existence of a road plan and structures mimicking Taiwan's Presidential Office in Taipei.”

One thing that could throw a wrench into this plan is the election of a new president in 2024.