Taiwan needs reforms in its military culture, former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger said in a book he coauthored with of Beacon Global Strategies vice president Ivan Kanapathy.
Taiwan needs a brand-new military culture to address deficiencies in fighting a protracted conflict and lack of preparation for quickly mobilizing the nation, the authors said.
The nation should conduct comprehensive exercises to drill the ground branch of Taiwan’s armed forces and the general public, and obtain the necessary equipment to arm mobilized troops, they said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The government must cultivate in Taiwanese the will to resist the enemy, and support them with the equipment, organization, military knowledge and ideals to compensate for the nation’s lack of geographical depth, the authors said.
Pottinger and Kanapathy urged President William Lai (賴清德) to “clean house within the Ministry of National Defense” and promote officers willing to explore and accept new operational concepts, such as fighting with the whole of society.
Lai should base Taiwan’s military model on Israel, a practitioner of conscription without regard to gender, solid reservist combat training and a resilient civil defense system, the authors said.
The Ministry of the Interior should organize territorial defense forces, they said, adding that strong, well-trained territorial defense forces could sustain the nation in a long war and be a powerful deterrent by raising the cost of armed conflict to unacceptable levels.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has shifted from a policy of favoring preventive efforts against Taiwanese independence to so-called “unification,” they said, adding that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is a real and urgent threat.
China considers the takeover of Taiwan as a means to topple the US-led global order, they said, adding that Xi would invade Taiwan the moment he believes victory is inevitable.
Democracies must make it clear that an attempt to take over Taiwan by force would end in defeat, and be a heavy blow against the Chinese Communist Party, they said.
Immediate action to deter China must be taken, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showed that the cost of deterrence is significantly lower than war, the authors said.
Should Taiwan, Japan, Australia, the US and Europe implement appropriate measures within the year, the threat of a war in the Taiwan Strait would be neutralized for the 2020s, the authors said.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS