For the first time, U.S. military personnel will participate in Taiwan's annual wargames. These planning and maneuver exercises take place in the Spring each year. During the wargames, the military tests is communications, plans and readiness, and experiments with new ideas and equipment. America has sent representatives as observers in the past, but this time a team of officers from the U.S. Pacific Command will attend and, it was announced, exercise plans to safeguard and evacuate American citizens in the event of war against Taiwan. In the last year, Taiwanese military officers have been working more closely with the Pentagon than anytime in the past decade or so.