| |
Taiwan defense: Finger on the 'enter'
key
By David Isenberg
It used
to be that Taiwan's main worry was an old-fashioned
invasion from mainland China, with Chinese soldiers
sailing to storm the beaches and impose communist rule.
Not any more. Taipei says that its defense focus is
having to shift to more futuristic threats: Internet
viruses, killer satellites, electromagnetic pulses that
could fry computer networks vital to Taiwan's defense
and economy.
China's electronic and information
warfare capabilities will pose a real threat to Taiwan
by 2010, as it becomes more proficient in using
electromagnetic pulse bombs and highly complicated
computer viruses to paralyze Taiwan's command systems,
according to the island's Ministry of National Defense
(MND).
Electronic warfare wasn't seen as a top
threat when the military issued its national defense
report two years ago. But on July 23, shortly after the
recent release of the US Defense Department's annual
report on the military power of the People's Republic of
China, Taiwan released an unusually candid 300-page
edition of its bi-annual "Defense Report Republic of
China" White Paper, which outlines what Taiwan sees as
its biggest threats and what it plans to do about them.
This is the first White Paper issued since President
Chen Shui-bian took office.
Urgency in China to
resolve the "Taiwan issue" and the mainland's military
modernization have posed a big threat against the
island's security, according to the paper. "In order to
negate the increasing threats from the PRC's military
satellites, technology of ballistic missile, and
information warfare, the ROC [Republic of China] Armed
Forces will assume a posture of 'effective deterrence,
resolute defense' under the fundamental concepts of
'prevention of war', 'maintaining stability in the
Taiwan Strait', and 'defending the national soil'."
In order to do so, "it will spare no efforts to
follow the guideline of "pre-empting information and
electronic superiorities, keeping hostile unlimited
warfare at bay, combining operations to command the air
and the sea, assuring safety of ground operations, and
defeating intruding enemies", to strengthen its prowess
in information and electronic arenas continuously, and
integrate weapon systems of the ROC Armed Forces so as
to establish a "compact but delicate, highly capable"
and modernized military force.
To enhance its
electronic warfare capability, the military is to
integrate the command and control systems of the air
force and navy to form an electronic surveillance
network, the paper says. The military is also to
integrate more effectively the use of unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) and underwater monitoring systems, which
are to be part of the electronic surveillance network.
The UAVs and underwater monitoring systems
referred to are still under development or construction.
The underwater monitoring systems, though not specified
in the paper, are believed to be those that Taiwan and
the United States are building in seas around Taiwan
proper.
The paper also candidly discusses
another hitherto rarely discussed project: the
establishment of a test site for electronic-warfare
drills. The project has now entered the second stage,
the report says, although what exactly that is remains
unexplained.
Introducing electronic-warfare
units in all three services is now a major objective,
the report says. The existence of the army's
electronic-warfare battalion, established only last year
with US assistance, is confirmed for the first time in
the paper.
According to Chang Yan-ting, a
colonel in the Taiwanese air force and associate
professor at the department of international studies at
the Political Warfare College, the paper indicates a
change in Taipei's strategic thinking.
If war
comes, Taiwan's capacity to endure the ravages of war is
extremely limited. It will have to take offensive action
if it is to stop enemy troops landing on the island.
Offshore full-scale engagement is the only option; the
main battlefield can't be allowed to expand to Taiwan
proper under any circumstances. Thus, a decisive
naval-air battle should be one of the important
strategic concepts of defense preparations. Otherwise
Taiwan will be forced on to the defensive. A decisive
shore battle would be extremely costly. Only by winning
the battle offshore can casualties and property damage
be minimized.
According to this line of
thinking, Taiwan's defense should be built on
maintaining combat capability. The strategy of
full-scale air and naval engagement offshore should be
adopted and air and naval deterrence and electromagnetic
warfare capabilities must be strengthened so that air
superiority can be gained early on. It must also
maintain counter-attack capabilities. According to
military, Taiwan has "quietly deployed locally developed
air defense Tienkung and anti-ship Hsiungfeng missiles
on the frontline islands" near the mainland, in tandem
with its military strategy.
Overall, Taiwan is
building a deterrent against any possible invasion of
the island by China while trying to establish mutual
trust mechanisms to prevent "accidental" wars, said the
Defense Ministry. It said it had formulated a
three-pronged defense strategy in the face of
"increasing threats" from China's military satellites,
ballistic missile technology and information warfare.
Taiwan wants to prevent war by building a
sustainable defense capability so that "the enemy dare
not rashly wage a war". But it also wants to maintain
stability in the Taiwan Strait through dialogue and
exchange on security issues between the two sides. In
the event of an invasion, it wants to be ready to defend
itself.
Although most of the media coverage of
the White Paper dealt with it analysis of the military
balance between the PRC and Taiwan, its analysis of
social and economic factors is just as important.
In examining China's internal environment, it
said: "Economically, discrepancy between economic
policies and industrial development, institutional
imbalance, and corporate earnings being perennially in
the red have caused problems such as disharmony in
regional economy and [a] widening poverty gap ...
Socially, the policy to reform state-owned enterprises
has caused a hike in the number of unemployed workers to
12 million people ... In addition, an unhealthy
mentality of seeking financial gain is pervading
throughout the society in both public and private
sectors, resulting in worsening problems of graft and
corruption. "In order to stabilize [mainland China's]
domestic situation and resolve existing problems,
Beijing authorities are bound to rely even more heavily
on its armed forces. Once domestic problems become a
threat to [the] political regime, it is highly likely
that the PRC will try to divert internal dissatisfaction
by taking outbound military actions."
(©2002
Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact content@atimes.com
for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
