Taiwan’s national defense report was released yesterday in Chinese and English simultaneously for the first time to boost communications between foreign countries and Taiwan amid efforts to combat the rising military threat from China.
The Ministry of National Defense began issuing the report on the latest military-related developments in Taiwan in Chinese and English in 1992.
However, over the past 30 years, the Chinese edition was published first, followed by the English version weeks or months later.
Photo: CNA
A military source told reporters that it previously took at least one-and-a-half months for the Chinese version to be translated and put online.
By publishing them together, international media can cite it as soon as it is published to make it more timely and newsworthy, the source said.
Ministry spokesman Shih Shun-wen (史順文) said that the change would also enable Taiwan’s armed forces to better communicate with foreign countries and support the government’s policy to make Taiwan a bilingual nation.
The 16th edition, tilted Resilience: ROC Armed Forces, reported on efforts over the past two years to reform the military branches and bolster their ability to deter intensifying military coercion from China.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has attempted to “unilaterally alter the international order of freedom and openness through the manipulation by gray zone activities” as the world is busy dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
“The PRC’s military preparations, realistic combat training and exercises, and intimidations and actions targeted at Taiwan are expected to be intensified, posing a grave threat to the security in the Taiwan Strait,” it said.
Beijing’s so-called gray zone warfare includes near-daily incursions of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) planes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone and military drills in the vicinity of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), it said.
China is also deploying other non-traditional threats against Taipei, including cyber and cognitive warfare, which the report said is aimed at conquering Taiwan without a full-scale military conflict, it said.
In response, Taiwan’s military branches improved combat preparedness with the acquisition of new weapon systems from abroad and by developing indigenous solutions, it said.
The domestic efforts include the rollout of the Advanced Jet Trainer program, the delivery of more ships under the High-Performance Vessel program and starting the building phase of the Indigenous Defensive Submarine program, the report said.
The ministry also published online an infographic and a summary of the report to make it more accessible to the public.
A comic version of the report was issued to draw greater attention to national defense issues, the ministry said.
The full English version is online at: https://reurl.cc/OkDgj3.
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