Satellite Images Reveal Chinese Military's Mock Targets in Desert

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.

China considers Taiwan part of its historical territory, even though Beijing has not directly controlled the self-governed island since the Chinese Communist Party took control of the Chinese mainland in 1949.

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.

In July 2015, China's state broadcaster, China Central Television, showcased a military exercise at the Zhurihe Training Base in Inner Mongolia. The exercise showed People's Liberation Army soldiers storming a building similar to the Japan-era office of Taiwan's president, wrote J. Michael Cole, a senior nonresident fellow at the Washington-based Global Taiwan Institute, in The Diplomat, an international current-affairs magazine.

"As it has done before in the past, Beijing is sending a signal to voters in Taiwan to make the 'right' choice (vote for its favored candidate, Hung Hsiu-chu of the KMT) and warning of the consequences should they fail to comply (by voting for the opposition Democratic Progressive Party's Tsai Ing-wen)," Cole wrote in 2015.

The Diplomat reported in August 2015 that China constructed a mock building resembling Taiwan's Presidential Office for military training. The building was built between 2014 and 2015, according to satellite images published by The Diplomat.

Newsweek contacted China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment by email.

"All indications point to the [People's Liberation Army] meeting President Xi Jinping's directive to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027," Admiral John Aquilino, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said in a prepared testimony to the U.S. Armed Services Committee on March 20.

"Although the [People's Republic of China] claims it prefers to achieve unification through peaceful means, Xi will not renounce the use of force," Aquilino added.

Despite these concerns, other top U.S. military officials and members of the intelligence community believe China wants to use peaceful means to reunify Taiwan with its territory.

When President Joe Biden met the Chinese leader in San Francisco last year, Xi told Biden to stop arming Taiwan.

"The U.S. side should take real actions to honor its commitment of not supporting 'Taiwan independence,' stop arming Taiwan, and support China's peaceful reunification," Xi said during the meeting, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement.