A defense review prepared for the legislature does not contain any description of a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) plan to establish a cyberwarfare branch in the armed forces, as promised by the party during the campaign for last year’s presidential election.
The Ministry of National Defense is scheduled to present its Quadrennial Defense Review — the first such report since the DPP government took office last year — to the legislature on Thursday.
The report does not say anything about a DPP defense blue book that promised to establish a fourth service in the armed forces aimed at fighting organized hackers and countering terrorist cyberattacks on Taiwan.
The report does mention “strengthening cyberwarfare capabilities” and other measures to enhance the quality of the nation’s defense personnel, and acknowledges that Taiwan cannot compete quantitatively with China’s growing People’s Liberation Army.
It says that China’s rising military power is not only adversely affecting the stability of the Asia-Pacific region, but also “posing a threat to Taiwan’s national security.”
To enhance national security, the ministry will boost its cyberwarfare capabilities, ensure the security of its command-control and information infrastructure, and strengthen joint counterattack readiness, the report says.
The report also elaborates on the ministry’s “multi-deterrence” strategy, saying it would use “innovative, asymmetrical” ways to force the enemy into “multi-dilemmas,” deterring the enemy from attempting to launch attacks on Taiwan.
If the enemy should invade Taiwan, the armed forces will “resist enemy troops at their home bases, strike them at sea, destroy them as they approach Taiwan’s coastlines and annihilate them on the beaches,” it added.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
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Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious