The nation’s armed forces can hold the line against China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) yesterday told the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
During a question-and-answer session, Yen was asked to evaluate the comparative military capabilities of Taiwan and China, three days after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told CNN that Taiwan was “capable of holding off any first waves of attacks” by China.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) asked what the military’s capabilities were to respond to a PLA “first strike,” and whether it had the ability to mount a pre-emptive strike against China.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The nation’s two-staged military doctrine is to enact force protection, followed by the deployment of combat power, Yen told Lo.
“For force protection, we must be capable of absorbing the first strike, so critical and dependable forces are mechanized, and they will not stay still for the enemy to hit,” he said. “For deploying combat power, we will use counterattacks and early suppression of the enemy, as well as other actions.”
“As for pre-emptive capabilities, we possess them, but we are not at liberty to discuss them,” he said.
However, he added that those capabilities are for creating a multi-layered deterrence, not for launching first strikes.
When DPP Legislator Wu Kun-yuh (吳焜裕) asked Yen to elaborate on the national military doctrine, the minister said Taiwan was not engaged in an arms race with China and the military relies on quality to overcome quantity.
To augment force protection, the ministry is working with local governments to mobilize assets necessary to protect military installations against Chinese guided missiles, in conjunction with concealment and mobility measures, he said.
The armed forces would deploy mobile and decisive weapons systems to fight at the place and time of its choosing, with an emphasis on using the terrain to maximize asymmetric warfare capabilities in the counter-air, counter-naval and counter-amphibious operational phases of such a war, Yen said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗) asked Yen to gauge the time the military could hold out against the PLA, and what the armed forces would do if war broke out as the result of political conflict between independence and unification factions.
While the military does not quantify defensive time frames for doctrinal reasons, “we have full confidence and capability to stay on top of regional developments and defend our homeland,” Yen said.
The military’s core value is its constitutional duty to defend the Republic of China and the citizens residing within its domain, he said.
The US is certain to intervene if regional security developments threaten its national interests and Japan could possibly be involved, he said, adding that the ministry could not speak for the intentions of the Philippines.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
RSS