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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

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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* (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.