Thu, Mar 03, 2022 page1

• Ukraine resistance validates Taiwan’s decisions: experts

  • By Yang Cheng-yu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  Ukraine’s resistance against Russian forces has validated the concepts underlying military reforms in Taiwan, an expert on China’s People’s Liberation Army yesterday told a conference in Taipei hosted by the Institute for National Policy Research.

  The fighting in Ukraine suggests that it was right to emphasize asymmetric warfare, urban warfare and survivability, said Ma Cheng-kun (馬振坤), who chairs the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies at National Defense University.

  Ukrainians have resisted Russian helicopters and armor with Stinger and Javelin missiles provided by NATO, showing that asymmetric warfare is an effective means to combat a superior attacking force, Ma said.

  

  Ma Cheng-kun, who chairs the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies at National Defense University, speaks at a forum organized by the Institute for National Policy Research in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times

  Taipei has negotiated deals to buy such missiles from the US and invested in domestic programs to develop similar weapons, he said.

  These programs are to create mobile weapon systems to defend the country independently of vulnerable radar sites and command centers, he said.

  The use of urban settings to counter an enemy’s advantages in the air and with armored forces continues to be justified in Ukraine, suggesting that Taiwan’s military policymakers were correct to shift focus from traditional fields of battle to urban combat, Ma said.

  Ukrainian forces have defended the country’s major cities by fortifying surrounding towns, which mitigated Russian advantages, albeit at a heavy cost in civilian casualties and property damage, he said.

  The Ukrainian reserve forces have forced delays and caused a steady trickle of losses among the enemy, indicating that the Ministry of National Defense’s plan to bolster reserve units has merit, he said.

  The Taiwanese military’s emphasis on preserving combat power, especially air and naval forces, has proved to be appropriate, Ma said, adding that Russia’s destruction of 11 Ukrainian air bases highlights the importance of hardening airfields and ports.

  Ukraine’s lack of strategic depth — an unfortunate feature of that country’s geography — made its hinterland vulnerable to long-range bombardments, he said.

  However, Taiwan is surrounded by sea, ensuring that ground forces would not closely follow missile strikes, he said.

  The value of Taiwan’s jet fighters and warships is that they are a force that could credibly maintain that advantage, he said.

  However, the Ukraine situation shows that Taiwan would need to mobilize early, as time is needed for reservists to train and equip for combat, he said.

  “The war in Ukraine should be a shot in the arm to Taiwan’s armed forces, as the national vision for force modernization is shown to be essentially correct,” he said. “The public should feel confident that the military can defend the country.”

  National Sun Yat-sen University professor of political science Kuo Yu-jen (郭育仁) told the conference that the war in Ukraine “has made Europe more united and Taiwan more secure than ever.”

  That the US refused to initiate direct military intervention in Ukraine is a positive development for Taiwan, showing that Washington’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific strategy was not affected by the crisis there, Kuo said.

  The challenge for the US in such trying conditions is to maintain strategic focus and patience, as an intervention in Ukraine would shift the strategic center of gravity from the Indo-Pacific, he said.

  That would have repeated the collapse of former US president George W. Bush’s plan to counter China after being compelled by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to embark on a decades-long war in the Middle East, he said.

  Instead, the war placed China in an awkward position of choosing between its Russian ally and Ukraine, which is its leading supplier of grain and coal, he said.

  Meanwhile, Taiwan has a lot to learn from the conflict in Ukraine with regard to the importance of military resiliency, reserve units, deterrence capabilities, countering cognitive warfare and crafting a more flexible and active national defense strategy, he said.
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