Taiwan and the US are converging on views related to Taiwan’s defense needs, with both sides agreeing that asymmetric capabilities alone are not enough, a source said on Saturday.
The so-called “porcupine approach” to Taiwan’s defense that would seek to make an invasion a costly prospect for China is gradually being abandoned by both sides, in favor of the view that Taiwan should also enhance traditional combat capabilities, the source said.
That change in views has been fueled by China’s escalation of “gray zone” tactics, and has culminated in strengthened Taiwan-US defense cooperation, such as in the development of Taiwan’s first domestically produced submarine.
Photo: Reuters
“If our country and territorial waters are like a house with a yard, then we should be projecting our forces outward as if building a fence around that yard,” the source said. “The porcupine approach would have the enemies enter our yard before we even take action, drastically reducing the space and time for a response.”
Also, China would likely respond to a porcupine defense approach by attempting to blockade Taiwan and starve it of supplies, they said.
The navy should build larger vessels that would help it project its strength outward and keep enemy forces beyond Taiwan’s territorial waters, they added.
“If the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy is approaching Taiwan, we will not be able to repel them using smaller vessels, so we will need a larger fleet of medium and large ships,” the source said.
Penghu County would also be incorporated into defense strategies that would aim to push its zone of defense toward the enemy, the source said.
“In the future, we will develop a mixed approach to defense that will incorporate both basic combat capabilities and asymmetric capabilities,” they said.
The US’ concepts of asymmetrical warfare is rooted in monitoring conflicts between Israel and its neighbors, which has partly informed the change in Washington’s view on Taiwan’s defense., the source said, adding that aircraft carriers were not involved in those conflicts due to the geographical conditions compared with Taiwan.
A Taiwan-China conflict would largely be fought at sea, and China would continue to normalize encroachments leading up to such a conflict using “gray zone” tactics, so Taiwan would need large ships to respond to those threats, they said.
The first domestically made submarine launched last week is also an important result of the consensus between the countries, they said.
“The launch of Taiwan’s first domestically built submarine is testament to the country’s cooperation and consensus with the US on Taiwan’s defense. We must continue to strengthen that cooperation and improve our combat abilities,” the source said.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS