The Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday announced that the military would hold its annual Han Kuang exercises from July 22 to 26. Military officers said the exercises would feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure. This year’s exercises underline the recent reforms in Taiwan’s military as it transitions from a top-down command structure to one where autonomy is pushed down to the front lines to improve decisionmaking and adaptability.
Militaries around the world have been observing and studying Russia’s war in Ukraine. They have seen that the Ukrainian military has been much quicker to adapt to changing circumstances than the Russian military. Experts say this is largely due to the NATO-style reforms Ukraine implemented after Russia’s invasion in 2014. The reforms transitioned the force away from its Soviet roots of slow and rigid top-down command, which still characterizes the Russian military, to one in which Ukrainian troops have more autonomy to use their initiative to make tactical decisions in the thick of battle.
Military cultures reflect the societies from which they emerge. Autocratic political systems create militaries that are hostile to open communication, autonomy and delegation. Democracies create militaries in which decisionmaking can be decentralized and officers have the freedom to adapt to circumstances.
Taiwan is a democracy, but it has been slow to implement NATO-style military reforms. With its top-heavy command structure and numerous top generals, the military looks closer to the Soviet-style Russian military than a Ukrainian or NATO military.
On one level, this is not entirely surprising. Taiwan’s military traces its founding to the Whampoa Military Academy in China’s Guangdong Province, which was set up by Soviet officers and with Soviet money. Vasily Blyukher, a Soviet commander, was its chief adviser.
Silverado Policy Accelerator founder Dmitri Alperovitch, author of World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the 21st Century, says it is unsurprising that Taiwan’s military is wedded to outdated ideas about force structure and strategy. The US cut Taiwan’s military off when it established diplomatic relations with China. The result is that for nearly four decades the nation’s military has been unable to learn best practices from NATO-standard militaries. It is hardly surprising that it has not adapted, although that is changing.
Adapting the military into a command and control structure able to fight modern wars requires a cultural change, which can be helped by increased democratic oversight and accountability to civilian command. This is why President William Lai (賴清德) appointed Wellington Koo (顧立雄), a civilian, as minister of national defense. Koo has not been socialized in an outdated system wedded to old concepts.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) made great strides toward changing society’s relationship with the military and building trust in an institution that has long been associated with the authoritarian period. She went out of her way to visit military bases, dress in camouflage and be photographed holding weapons. She also helped build the military’s trust in and respect for civilian, Democratic Progressive Party leadership.
Lai wants to go further and change the military culture, especially the defeatist mentality among conservative generals that Taiwan cannot resist China.
“In history, there are many cases where the few win out over the many, and there are countless ways to win over old-fashioned enemies with new thinking,” he told air force officers at an air base in Taichung on Tuesday.
It will take time to change the military culture, but the direction being taken is positive.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) sits down with US President Donald Trump in Beijing on Thursday next week, Xi is unlikely to demand a dramatic public betrayal of Taiwan. He does not need to. Beijing’s preferred victory is smaller, quieter and in some ways far more dangerous: a subtle shift in American wording that appears technical, but carries major strategic meaning. The ask is simple: replace the longstanding US formulation that Washington “does not support Taiwan independence” with a harder one — that Washington “opposes” Taiwan independence. One word changes; a deterrence structure built over decades begins to shift.
The cancelation this week of President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visit to Eswatini, after the Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius revoked overflight permits under Chinese pressure, is one more measure of Taiwan’s shrinking executive diplomatic space. Another channel that deserves attention keeps growing while the first contracts. For several years now, Taipei has been one of Europe’s busiest legislative destinations. Where presidents and foreign ministers cannot land, parliamentarians do — and they do it in rising numbers. The Italian parliament opened the year with its largest bipartisan delegation to Taiwan to date: six Italian deputies and one senator, drawn from six
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