Taiwan’s armed forces must learn to embrace innovation, accept risks and confront problems with honesty to get out of the doldrums of “preparing for yesterday’s war,” retired admiral Lee Hsi-ming (李喜明), former chief of the general staff, told a news conference at the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation on Friday.
The foundation held the event to release its 2022-2023 Republic of China National Defense Review.
National defense strategy, joint warfare, cyberoperations, strategic reserve forces and self-reliant national defense were the key aspects of defense underscored by the paper, which focussed on providing alternative policies for the government’s consideration, Lee said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Taiwan faces existential and coercive threats, with China’s utilization of “gray zone” conflict encapsulating the latter, he said, adding that gray zone conflict is characterized by using the threat of force to create fear and intimidation.
Taiwan lacks the sufficient military capability to address coercive threats, which highlights the urgent need for applying asymmetry to national defense in all domains, he said.
Instead of spending its limited resources on larger orders of fighter jets and warships, Taiwan should keep Beijing’s tactics in check by using crewed systems and remaining calm without losing perspective, Lee said.
Some analysts have called attention to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s construction of new aircraft carriers and argued that these surface combatants could be deployed in a hypothetical blockade of Taiwan, he said.
The analysts are mistaken because they do not grasp that the purpose of the carriers is to serve Beijing’s quest for global hegemony, not be deployed immediately in the Taiwan Strait, Lee’s said.
Chinese carriers are not likely to play a significant role in a war against Taiwan, as they are part of Beijing’s effort to build a first-rate military that can project power on a global scale by 2049, not to be immediately risked in the Taiwan Strait, he said.
Should the PLA launch an attack on Taiwan, its main goal would be to overcome the resistance of defending forces while preventing the US or other nations from interfering with its invasion, he said.
China’s advanced ballistic missiles, submarines and bombers are far more effective weapons in accomplishing these aims than deploying aircraft carriers in an anti-access, area-denial role, Lee said, adding that the US is clearly more troubled by these PLA capabilities.
Regarding cyberwarfare, Lee said that the military’s Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command appears to have neglected the Internet, which does not fall into the military definition of information, communications or electronic warfare.
Contesting the Internet space is a crucial mission that the armed forces of the US and Israel have integrated into their military intelligence services, he said, adding that intelligence is foundational to successful operations on the Internet.
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