Taiwan should regard a cyberattack that causes “real harm or loss of life” as an act of war and respond with armed force, said Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the state-run Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
In March last year, then-minister of national defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) broadened Taiwan’s definition of a “first blow” to include intrusions by Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft into the nation’s sovereign airspace, citing a shifting operational environment and Beijing’s growing use of “gray zone” tactics.
In June last year, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said the armed forces would respond with force only in self-defense against Chinese aggression, including attacks on Taiwanese aircraft, ships, infrastructure or sovereign territory — covering Taiwan proper and its outlying islands — as well as unauthorized entry by Chinese aircraft within 12 nautical miles (22.22km) of Taiwan’s coastline.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwan’s response would be proportional to the “first blow” made by China, he said at the time.
Asked this week how the military should respond to a large-scale cyberattack, Su said that while cyberoperations are less visible than physical incursions or weapons fire, most governments already consider cyberattacks that cause casualties or serious harm to be casus belli — an event that provokes war.
Taiwan could and should adopt the same standard for responding to cyberattacks, provided any armed retaliation remains proportional to the hostile action, Su said.
NATO’s Tallinn Manual affirms the right of member states to invoke Article 51 of the UN Charter — allowing self-defense — if they come under cyberattack, he said.
In 2019, the US and Japan amended their Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security to explicitly state that Washington is obligated to defend Japan, or US forces stationed there, against cyberwarfare attacks, he added.
Israel takes a more forceful approach, with a policy of issuing warnings over hacking traced to Hamas before launching airstrikes on the identified sources, Su said.
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