SpaceWar.com reports: “Taiwan kicked off a two-day missile live-firing test on Monday ahead of its largest annual military exercises as the island ramps up preparations against an increasingly assertive China.

The 23 million Taiwanese people live under constant threat of invasion by Beijing, which views the island democracy as part of its territory to be seized one day.

Soldiers fired US-made TOW 2A anti-tank missiles in southern Pingtung county on Monday in an exercise aimed at ‘enhancing defence operations based on practicality’, defence ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang said.

‘So our soldiers could have the confidence and capability at wartime, and execute their responsibility to defend the country,’ he told reporters.

The missile firings come as relations between Taipei and Beijing are increasingly strained, with China conducting two major military exercises around Taiwan in the past year…”