The Ministry of National Defense yesterday released its White Paper on the country's national defense. The report is the sixth of its kind; the ministry began a tradition of issuing such analyses biennially in 1992. So speculation about the motive and timing of the paper's release, which coincided with the loss of another diplomatic ally and President Chen Shui-bian's (
The White Paper has a new emphasis that ought to ease any speculation about malice on the part of the government -- it stresses that the duty of the armed forces is to maintain peace of the country and the region and engage in so-called preventive war. This is a departure from the traditional emphasis on the readiness and eagerness of the military to fight and attack for a full victory.
This shift reflects Taiwan's own transformation from the days when the KMT regime had the entire country daydreaming of retaking "the mainland." China and Taiwan are two sovereign countries. All the government and the people of Taiwan want is to have the country's sovereignty respected and their democratic and free way of life preserved. This shift in theme is also consistent with the understanding between the US and Taiwan with regard to sales of defensive weapons to Taipei.
Another shift apparent in the White Paper is the new emphasis on high-tech arms and warfare. For the first time, superiority in information and electronic warfare is listed as one of the military's fundamental aims. The report also elaborated on the electronic and information warfare forces for the first time in the section where it introduced the armed services. This shift underscores a realization that sophisticated high-tech weapons may be the only military edge that Taiwan has over China. It is certainly no match in terms of the size of the two militaries. In case of attack, Taiwan will have to rely on this edge to maintain sea and air control until military aid from the US arrives.
How much longer can Taiwan enjoy this edge is unknown. The nation is at the mercy of its key ally, the US, when it comes to acquiring high-tech weaponry and China is catching up fast. With its new-found wealth China is spending an increasingly large amount on its military budget.
For the first time in a White Paper, the defense ministry has called for the establishment of cross-strait "military mutual confidence mechanisms," ranging from a hot line between the leaders of the two sides to demilitarized and military buffer zones, and an end to military exercises targeting the other side. The first two mechanisms are in particularly praiseworthy, as the former would surely reduce the chances of misunderstanding and miscommunication, while the latter would virtually eliminate the possibility of military confrontation in Taiwan Strait. Unfortunately, neither appear likely to become a reality any time soon. The third mechanism also appears to be a fantasy, since it is unlikely that China will stop targeting Taiwan, either with its military exercises or its deployment of ballistic missiles.
Overall, the new White Paper deserves a thumbs-up for its display of pragmatism and goodwill toward China.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs