A media report citing leaked US intelligence documents as saying that China would probably gain air superiority quickly if it were to attack Taiwan was not true, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday.
The Washington Post reported that classified documents, allegedly leaked by a US Air National Guard member, showed that the leadership of the Taiwanese military doubts that its air defense systems can “accurately detect missile launches,” while only about half of its aircraft are capable of effectively engaging the enemy.
The report said Taiwan fears it could take up to a week to move its aircraft to shelters, leaving them vulnerable to Chinese missile strikes.
Photo: Jameson Wu, AFP
China’s use of civilian ships, including passenger ferries, for military purposes has hampered the US intelligence community’s ability to detect preparations for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, the Washington Post said.
The report said the US Department of Defense had criticized Taiwan’s missile drills as too highly scripted, potentially leaving its armed forces and their leadership unprepared for a “real-world event.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has undertaken a huge overhaul of the Chinese military to expand and modernize it. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army is estimated to be 14 times the size of Taiwan’s armed forces.
The Washington Post quoted the MND as saying that the armed forces are confident that they can defend Taiwan.
Taiwan’s response to Chinese drills around the nation in the past few days showed that its military is “absolutely capable, determined and confident” about its capabilities, the report cited the ministry as saying.
The ministry yesterday said in a statement that the content of the report was not true.
Taiwanese military drills have simulated all possible scenarios of Chinese communist forces attacking the nation, the ministry said.
Taiwan had made “appropriate modification on combat plans” as it continues to enhance military preparedness to bolster its defense capabilities, the ministry said.
Last week, Taiwan staged large-scale emergency response drills enacting a wide array of scenarios, including enemy attacks using missiles and chemical weapons.
The drills were held days after China conducted military exercises around Taiwan, with part of them held as close as 160km off Taiwan’s coast.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai