The Ministry of National Defense yesterday unveiled its biennial white paper on national defense, outlining doctrinal changes that emphasize asymmetric warfare and layered defense.
The 2017 National Defense Report reiterates the military’s commitment to an all-volunteer force and the indigenous development of military aircraft and warships.
“We are cognizant that our nation cannot compare with the defense budget and military development in China, whose military’s pace of growth and strength have far exceeded expectations,” Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) said in the report.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
“Consequently, we must employ vision and foresight in our adjustment of defense concepts and overall armament development,” he said.
China has acquired the ability to execute long-range sea and air operations, and it is pushing the reach of its force projection to the areas west of the second island chain, the report said.
The second island chain refers to Japan’s Bonin Islands and Volcano Islands, and the US’ Mariana Islands.
Those developments necessitate a change in the nation’s strategy from “strong defense and effective deterrence” — which had been in effect since 2009 — to “strong defense and layered deterrence,” the report said.
Strong defense refers to in-depth defense, improving combat sustainability, protecting command and control infrastructure from cyberthreats, and developing strategic endurance, it said.
Layered deterrence involves using “innovative and asymmetrical warfare” that confronts the enemy with multiple dilemmas to achieve deterrence, it said.
The overall military strategy in a defensive war is to achieve “force preservation, win decisive battles in littoral waters and annihilate the enemy on the beachhead,” the report said.
It is desirable for the military to acquire precision-guided munitions, electronic countermeasures, guided anti-tank missiles, man-portable air defense systems, fast multiple-role warships, uncrewed aerial vehicles and naval minelaying capabilities, among others, the report said.
The report listed Chinese air and sea drills conducted between Aug. 18 last year and Dec. 11, including 23 air patrols and two aircraft carrier exercises in proximity to Taiwan’s territorial waters or air defense identification zone.
The ministry will stop giving news briefings on ongoing Chinese military exercises near Taiwan, ministry spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) told a news conference in Taipei.
“When Chinese aircraft and ships are not posing any more threat to us than usual, we see no need to help them with their propaganda,” he said.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS