The Institute for National Defense and Security Research has published its Special Report on Gray Zone Conflicts, in which it discussed the growing trend for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to employ tactics such as information warfare, cyberwarfare and military force and intimidation against Taiwan, sending in aircraft carriers, initiating maritime conflicts and spreading fake news.
These tactics are reminiscent of those used in Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, which were regarded by military strategy experts as an example of hybrid warfare.
Beijing is applying this gray zone conflict warfare tactic in the three Asian conflict hotspots — the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea and the East China Sea — as identified in the “Deteriorated Situations” section of last month’s edition of the International Crisis Group publication Crisis Watch.
Over the past several years, in particular, the CCP has been employing these gray zone conflict tactics in the region, using military and non-military approaches, including the many incursions of People’s Liberation Army Air Force fighters into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.
This author believes that these tactics are the precursor to Beijing’s execution of hybrid warfare against Taiwan. Taiwanese need to take this very seriously
Beijing began implementing gray zone conflict tactics some time ago. It has combined soft and hard power, through economics and military intimidation, and has done all within its power to sow division in Taiwanese society and amplify ethnic conflict, all in an attempt to turn around the public’s identification as Taiwanese.
These are ways in which the CCP has mobilized non-military means to make up a large percentage of its overall hybrid warfare campaign, with the intention of first infiltrating Taiwan and then using its ability to control discourse to foment social unrest through manipulation of public opinion, and then pave the way for the military aspect of the campaign with its implementation of its “Anti-Secession” Law and the Hong Kong national security legislation.
The CCP is flexing its military muscles: This show of strength is not aimed solely at Taiwan — it is also for broadcast to the whole world.
China has announced its intention to conduct large-scale military exercises in the South China Sea next month to simulate the taking of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) — which Taiwan also claims — most likely as a way to intimidate the nation’s armed forces and erode their morale.
Fortunately, Taiwanese and their armed forces are quite confident in their ability to defend their nation, and the military was not intimidated by the CCP in the slightest, moving its own military exercises to the Pratas Islands to demonstrate its resolve in protecting the nation.
Many of Taiwan’s allies are also decrying Beijing’s behavior, proving that China is creating a negative image for itself as a neighborhood bully, one that it refuses to acknowledge.
Its behavior is entirely at odds with its stated goal of achieving peace and stability in the Strait.
The ultimate objective of the salami slicing and gray zone conflict tactics China is using to wage its cognitive and hybrid warfare on Taiwan is to create divisions in Taiwanese society and to disorientate the nation.
The government needs to redouble its efforts in the fields of national defense, economy, diplomacy, media, legislation, information and education, and to combine them and bolster the entire nation’s resolve, so that the CCP’s plans are eventually foiled.
Chang Ling-ling is a political instructor at National Defense University.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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