Ukraine shares a long land border with Russia.
Taipei:
Taiwan’s military strategists have studied Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and its resistance to the island’s own fighting strategy in the event that giant neighbor China does. good threat to use force.
While the Taiwanese government has not reported any unusual activity by the Chinese military, which considers the island its territory, Taipei has raised the alert level.
Russia’s use of precision missiles, as well as Ukraine’s good tactics through its ability to fight back despite being repelled and dislodged, are being watched carefully in security circles in Taiwan, where the force their own quantity is also limited by China.
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has supported the idea of ”asymmetric warfare”, which aims to make its forces more mobile and harder to attack with, for example, vehicle-mounted missiles.
Ma Cheng-Kun, director of the Institute of Chinese Military Affairs at Taiwan National Defense University, said Ukraine has used a similar concept with mobile weapons to deter Russian forces.
“The Ukrainian military has been making very effective use of asymmetric warfare, and so far has successfully blocked the Russian advance,” said Ma, a government adviser on China policy.
“That’s exactly what our armed forces have been actively developing,” he said, pointing to weapons such as the light and developed Kestrel anti-armor missile. water designed for close range warfare.
“From Ukraine’s performance, we can even be more confident in ourselves.”
Taiwan has been developing other missiles that can reach as far as China.
Last week, the Ministry of National Defense said it plans to more than double its annual missile production capacity to nearly 500 missiles this year, including an upgraded version of the Hsiung Feng IIE, a rocket Hsiung Sheng mainland military experts said. capable of striking targets farther inland China.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it had “closely grasped” the international security situation and was making efforts to “improve its weapons and equipment and combat capabilities for national defense at all times” but the military “did not provocative”.
NATURAL BARRIERS
However, there is a big difference between the views of Taiwan and Ukraine that has brought reassurance.
For example, the Taiwanese government has repeatedly pointed out the natural barrier of the Taiwan Strait that separates it from China. Ukraine shares a long land border with Russia.
Strategists say Taiwan could also easily spot signs of Chinese military movement and prepare for an invasion, in which China would need to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops and equipment equipment such as ships, which can easily be targeted by Taiwanese missiles.
Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at Taiwan’s top military research institute, the Institute of Defense and Security Studies.
It’s not just about the hardware.
Looming in the background is the long-running debate – centered on the Ukraine war – about whether US forces would support Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. Washington practiced “strategic ambiguity” on the subject, offering no clear answer.
Lo Chih-cheng, a senior lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party who sits on the congressional foreign and defense committees, said the Biden administration has sent a team of former top officials to Taiwan last week right after Ukraine was invaded should dispel the idea that the United States cannot be relied upon.
“At this point, it sent a message across the strait, to the people of Taiwan, that the United States is a trustworthy country,” he told a party podcast Tuesday.
Taiwan, a major semiconductor producer, hopes its geographical and supply chain importance will set it apart from Ukraine.
But the Biden administration’s repeated denials of sending troops to Ukraine has upset some in Taiwan.
“Do people in Taiwan really think that now the West and the United States will still come to save us?” Chao Chien-min, former Vice Chairman of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council and currently working at Taiwan’s Chinese Culture University, said.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
