Taiwan has laid out plans to challenge what it described as China’s “gray zone threats” to shift the balance of power in the region and possibly take over the nation without fighting a battle.
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday outlined in a biennial military strategy report how it aims to counter what it describes as Beijing’s pressure campaign.
It cited warplane incursions, as well as speedboats ramming its coast guard vessels, and accused China of engaging in “cognitive warfare” to sway Taiwanese public opinion.
Photo: AFP
The military is committed to protecting Taiwan’s sovereignty and democratic system, the ministry said, laying out its strategy for countering China.
“The first and foremost defense undertaking is to prevent war and deter any external military threats, and our overall defense power shall be employed to defend our homeland, magnify the costs and risks entailed by the [People’s Republic of China’s] invasion, and ultimately protect the lives and properties of the people,” it said.
Taiwan has re-emerged as a flash point in US-China ties in the past few months. Washington has been moving to help the government in Taipei take on a bigger role in international organizations like the UN, and US President Joe Biden said last month that the US would come to Taiwan’s aid if it was attacked by China — comments the White House later said did not mark a change in policy.
Yesterday’s report lays out how the military plans to expand the range of its military deterrence to the Chinese coast to create “hostile” embarking and seafaring phases for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) forces should they attempt to cross the Taiwan Strait.
“The PLA’s weakness is in the phase of sea transit,” the report said. “The Armed Forces must take full advantage of the natural barrier of the Taiwan Strait and fight in a resilient manner.”
“We should not limit ourselves to waiting for the enemy’s landing groups to sail through the Strait, but should also use measures to force the enemy to assemble forces at airfields or ports further away from areas opposite Taiwan,” it said.
Given China’s overwhelming superiority in terms of personnel and resources, Taiwan plans to utilize asymmetric tactics to nullify the PLA’s advantages, such as countering Chinese airborne operations with mobile surface-to-air missiles and attacking large ships with small, fast and resilient vessels, the report said.
Defensive cruise missiles, and land and sea mines would be key platforms to deter a Chinese attempt to land on Taiwan, it said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) last month told CNN that she was confident the US would come to Taiwan’s defense if China tried to invade, adding that the “threat from China is increasing every day,” while also confirming the presence of some US troops in Taiwan.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS