At least 30 percent of Ukraine’s power plants and hydraulic infrastructure have reportedly been damaged by massive missile and drone attacks from Russia, causing serious power shortages and forcing the Ukrainian government to ration power in the nation.
The term “infrastructure” refers to the basic facilities necessary to sustain people’s lives. Such facilities ensure a government’s operations in peacetime, while additionally serving the needs of its defense forces during war.
Key infrastructure involves water, electricity, energy, transportation, communications, finance and information.
Infrastructure is often highly vulnerable, covering extensive areas and being prone to destruction, and is relatively difficult to protect.
INCIDENTS IN TAIWAN
In August 2017, natural gas supply was interrupted at CPC Corp, Taiwan’s Datan (大潭) terminal in Taoyuan due to an operational error.
The incident shut down six units of Taiwan Power Co’s Datan Power Plant and caused a blackout affecting nearly 6.88 million households in 17 cities and counties throughout Taiwan. Even Taipei’s Boai Special Zone (博愛特區), which includes the Presidential Office Building, the Executive Yuan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies, was affected for the first time ever.
Most incidents in which major infrastructure that is vital to people’s lives is severely damaged are due to natural causes.
The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami not only caused major blackouts in many Japanese cities, but also destroyed a number of roads and bridges, as well as other transportation facilities. The natural disaster also paralyzed public facilities such as the country’s power grid, hospitals and schools.
However, in the war between Russia and Ukraine, key infrastructure has become a main target of Russian attacks.
On Oct. 31, Russia launched more than 50 cruise missiles against targets in many parts of Ukraine, including some electricity and water supply facilities in Kyiv.
The Russian Ministry of Defense later said in a statement that its armed forces had used high-precision, long-range air and sea-based weapons against Ukraine’s military command posts and energy systems, and that the airstrikes hit all designated targets.
In response to the heavy bombardment of its infrastructure, the Ukrainian government on Monday last week announced that it would invoke wartime laws to take control of five “strategically important” companies, including engine and manufacturing firms.
Ukraine launched rolling power rationing in all regions, with three to four hours of power cuts every day. The government has also prepared 1,000 temporary shelters to provide water, electricity and heating to civilians.
The war has taught Taiwan a lesson: If military conflict breaks out across the Taiwan Strait, it might be possible for the Chinese Communist Party to simultaneously attack public facilities in multiple locations, with extensive and continuous attacks potentially affecting the morale of Taiwanese civilians and troops, and their willpower to resist the enemy.
How should Taiwan prevent and potentially respond to attacks on its infrastructure?
This is an important strategic issue that national security agencies should study.
Yao Chung-yuan is a professor and former deputy director of the Ministry of National Defense’s strategic planning department.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS