Taiwan should develop a national defense strategy that incorporates nonviolent civil resistance in the event of a Chinese invasion, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chien Hsi-chieh says in a new book, titled Power of the Weak (弱者的力量).
Chien, a long-time labor activist and expert in nonviolent resistance tactics, said the nation should establish a system of “nonviolent, civilian-based defense” that would coexist with military forces and act to paralyze a foreign authoritarian regime.
The strategy would require the entire population to receive education and training in civil disobedience tactics, with the government serving as a coordinator in sharing the experience of social activist groups with the rest of the public, he said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Nonviolent resistance is an urgent issue given the growing imbalance in military power between Taiwan and China and the increasing possibility the that the US might “abandon” Taiwan in the case of military conflict.
By adopting nonviolent methods, the public could claim a moral higher ground and create more international pressure on an invading regime, Chien said.
“We should apply methods of non-cooperation and disobedience to resist the annexation of Taiwan by the Chinese Communist Party regime,” Chien said.
Accompanied by representatives of activist groups at a Taipei news conference, Chien said he plans to lobby for legislation on the issue as well as seek support from all candidates running in next year’s presidential elections.
Taiwan could learn from the experiences of Lithuania or other Baltic states, which include both military security and civil resistance as part of their national defense strategy, Chien said.
In his book, Chien said that Lithuania’s strategy was largely inspired by its independence movement against the Soviet Union from 1988 to 1991, in which the entire public took part in coordinated actions of civil disobedience such as mass strikes, road blockades and passive resistance to Soviet laws.
Many other countries, such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and South Africa, also include similar principles in their national defense strategies, Chien said.
Academia Sinica researcher Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) said he agreed with Chien’s view that civil resistance should not only be seen as a supplement to military force, but as a “powerful backing” for national defense.
Hzu said neighborhoods and communities should get involved in grassroots action in defense, disaster relief and social welfare.
“Instead of ‘national defense,’ we might put it as ‘community defense;’ in case of such a scenario, individual communities could declare themselves to be ‘non-cooperative communities,’” Hsu said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard