Taiwan President Lai Ching-te oversaw on Thursday the first civil defence drills under his newly created social resilience committee simulating how to respond to a large-scale disaster like a tsunami or attacks on critical infrastructure. The drill, in the southern city of Tainan, was held under the auspices of Lai's new Whole-of-Society Defence Resilience Committee, set up last year to prepare to deal with natural disasters or other emergencies such as an attack by China, which views the democratically-governed island as its own territory. Speaking to participants after viewing some of the drills, Lai said these were the first live drills for the committee and involved around 1,500 people and there would be more next month.