Taipei, Taiwan - Taiwan on Wednesday began its largest military drills of the year as the island nation ramps up its preparations for a potential invasion from and war with China.

The annual "Han Kuang" exercise, which runs from August 5–14, stages combat scenarios for troops and reservists to practice responding to a potential attack on the island, defense officials say.

Civilians will also be put through their paces during exercises that include a temporary slowdown of mobile internet speeds and air raid drills.

China claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has repeatedly threatened to use force to invade the island of 23 million people.

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Over recent years, Beijing has ramped up military pressure on Taiwan, deploying fighter jets and warships around the island on an almost daily basis and carrying out large-scale drills, often with live munitions.

The Chinese coastguard has also stepped up its gray zone activities – actions that fall short of war – around Taiwan and its outer islands.

On Wednesday, dozens of reservists spread out along a beach facing the Taiwan Strait and fired Taiwanese-made assault rifles at targets on a shore where Chinese forces could likely land if they were to invade.

In recent months, Taiwan has boosted defense spending and acquired smaller and nimbler weaponry, including drones, to enable its military to wage asymmetric warfare against a far more powerful China.

Under intense US pressure to cough up more on security, Lai's government has vowed to increase defense spending to five percent of GDP by 2030.

"As the CCP's authoritarianism continues to expand, red terror is also spreading into every corner of the world," President Lai Ching-Te told a security forum on the eve of the exercises.

"We will continue to upgrade our national defense and build whole-of-society defense and resilience," he said.