this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2024

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Satellite images reveal China built a replica of Taipei’s presidential district in remote Inner Mongolia, fuelling speculation that Beijing uses the site as training ground for an invasion of Taiwan (www.france24.com)

submitted 7 months ago by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10664616

The satellite images reveal a layout of streets strongly resembling the Bo’ai Special Zone, a restricted area in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District that houses Taiwan’s most important state buildings, including the presidential palace, the supreme court, the ministry of justice and the central bank of Taiwan.

The Bo’ai Special Zone is subject to specific regulations, including a strict ban on overflight.

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[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Doesn't everyone do that? Or does the US already do full VR training?

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 23 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That is one clumsy attempt at whataboutism.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Sorry, let me clarify:

Fact: Every country in the world builds training areas simulating potential targets.
Question: Has the US military switched to building them fully in VR, or are they still building IRL realistic ones?

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Who cares? This isn't about the US, this is a deliberate provocation by China, so let's discuss how China is marching towards instigating an armed conflict with Taiwan.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I see it the other way:

Who cares? For many years already, China has been making official declarations of intentions, running fighter jet flybys, boosting mainland chip production to stop depending on TSMC, and so on. Building a target replica is not a "provocation", it's a threat... but we knew that already.

What I'm more interested in, is whether some country has managed to build replicas "invisible to satellites", and the US is one that I've heard has been at least trying to (just like I've heard both South Korea and the US have been planning on building robot soldiers).

That, would be a game changer. Building a replica, is "water is wet".

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 3 points 7 months ago

There's a rumor that North Korea has an underground replica of a South Korean city in order to train spies and sleeper agents. They are said to live there for a while, learn how to blend in, speak the different dialect, handle things like electronic payment methods, etc.

[–] BorgDrone@lemmy.one 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There is a bit of a difference between buikding a realistic looking generic town and, say, building an exact replica of the Kremlin.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 3 points 7 months ago

There are no "generic towns"; hop onto Google Maps, or even better Google Earth, and check out the distinctly different city layouts throughout the world. Whatever they chose, reveals their plans for action in one or more scenarios.

(somewhat ironically, It's easier to build a "generic Kremlin": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlin_(fortification) ...but with the cold war history, I'd be surprised if the US didn't build a replica of the Moscow one at some point)

However, I'm more interested in whether they have reached the point of making replicas "invisible to satellites".

[–] Zworf@beehaw.org 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Training yes I'm sure. Training of a specific target? I don't think so. It only makes sense if you're really planning to attack that target, which is what makes this shocking. Does America have a mockup Kremlin?

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The US, and pretty much everyone, regularly runs "war games" with potential scenarios of real targets. That definitely includes the Kremlin, and other targets from all around the world, it would be naive to think otherwise.

But... simulators have been a thing for some time already, which is why I'm asking. I haven't been to the ones they've built, like:

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-army-just-built-a-whole-town-for-super-real-training-5b14acd7fa1e

Meanwhile:

https://militaryembedded.com/radar-ew/sensors/army-goes-deep-into-vrar-for-training-and-combat

[–] BarryZuckerkorn@beehaw.org 5 points 7 months ago

The only instance I'm aware of where the US military built a specific model meant to be a replica of a real place was the Osama bin Laden compound. Which they did, in fact, raid.

The building of a fake town isn't the unusual part. The building of a replica of a specific place might not even be that unusual, but it is a strong signal that they definitely intend to attack the real world place that is being replicated.