Roving Periscope: As Ukraine pushes Russia back, Taiwan readies for war with China
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Carefully watching how Ukraine has denied a clear victory to Russia, despite nearly nine months of its all-out invasion, Taiwan is also bracing for a long-drawn-out war against China which has, repeatedly, threatened to invade the democratic island that broke away from the Communist-ruled mainland in 1949.
Taiwan was the main issue in this week’s talks between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at Bali, Indonesia, in which Beijing warned Washington not to cross the “red line.”
For months, China has been flexing muscles and increasing its military activities near Taiwan in line with its stated goal of reintegrating it with the mainland. Now, Taiwan is taking concrete steps to defend and train itself to prepare for a “real war scenario,” The Singapore Post reported on Thursday.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen warned Beijing that the island belongs to its people and its free existence did not provoke anybody.
Taiwan, which until recently was purchasing large military platforms and systems like fighter jets and naval vessels, is now focussing on smaller lethal anti-ship and surface-to-air-missiles, the media reported.
While Chinese President Xi Jinping recently called his People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to prepare for war, the Taiwanese leader said she had not “surrendered” to Beijing’s “One Country, Two Systems” proposal for autonomy under Chinese sovereignty and that her life’s mission was to ensure her island remained with its people.
On November 8, Xi said Beijing will strengthen military training and prepare for any war as the nation’s “security is increasingly unstable and uncertain.”
The Chinese President, who is also Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), said this during a visit to the Joint Operations Command Center of the CMC in Beijing. China will now comprehensively strengthen its military training and preparation for any war, the state-run broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) quoted him as saying.
China has been claiming Taiwan as a part of its territory, despite the island being a de facto nation-state, officially known as the Republic of China, with its own democratically elected government, military, and currency. Beijing has threatened military force to bring the island under its fold.
America’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said an attack on the island’s democracy could come anytime. “I don’t think the Chinese are likely to invade Taiwan in the next couple of years. But you never know,” he said on November 4. “Xi has certainly given his military the charge to have that capability by the end of this decade and probably by 2027.”
Known as the porcupine strategy, Taiwan’s shift to smaller weapons takes advantage of China’s main weakness—shifting a lot of soldiers by ships and aircraft across 110 miles of waters, the “Taiwan Strait”, in a hostile ecosystem.
That is why Taiwan is now purchasing drones from the United States. Ukraine has effectively used this weapon against Russia. Taiwan is not just buying drones from the US, it is also developing its own in case the PLA’s navy blocks the island.
Sensing that China might cut underwater cables and Taiwan’s access to the internet, Taipei’s Ministry for Digital Affairs is developing a backup not relying on foreign governments or corporations. The two-month-old nascent Ministry plans to connect 5G mobile towers to 700 satellite receivers in mid- or low-earth orbit.
In the potential China-Taiwan conflict, Japan and the US are most likely to support Taipei. Allowing China to take Taiwan would also make Japan’s southernmost islands vulnerable and break the first-island chain that contains China’s navy.
