Ukraine’s countermoves against Russia’s larger military shows Taiwan that possessing advanced “asymmetric” weapons and a determination to resist invasion by a larger neighbor can be a successful combination, a senior US Department of State official said on Wednesday.
“One of the things that everyone is thinking about when it comes to Taiwan, and I think a lesson learned from this war, is that asymmetric works,” US Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Political Military Affairs Jessica Lewis said at a Center for International and Strategic Studies event on US security assistance to Ukraine.
Lewis said that Ukraine’s use of US-provided Javelin anti-tank systems and Stinger anti-aircraft weapons — considered asymmetric because they can help a smaller force battle a stronger opponent — hold lessons for the defense of Taiwan, which China has threatened with invasion.
Photo: AFP
Pointing out that US officials have long studied how Taiwan should prepare for a potential Chinese assault, Lewis said that defenders against a numerically more powerful invasion force require more than advanced weapons.
It is important not to “over-compare” the situations in Ukraine and Taiwan, but it is crucial to look for lessons learned, she said.
“For a long time, when it comes to Taiwan, we’ve been looking at this question, you know: What does an asymmetric defense and preparing yourself look like?” she said. “It’s not just a matter of whether you have a Stinger or a Javelin. What we’ve seen from the Ukrainians is you have a population that was trained, willing and able to fight.”
Taiwan has worked alongside the US to acquire asymmetric weapons in the face of threats by China.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS