The Biden administration’s 2022 National Defense Strategy calls for strengthening deterrence against China, so why did it exclude a key regional player?
Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party has threatened to invade Taiwan for more than seven decades. Now fears are growing among analysts, officials and investors that it might actually follow through
Taiwan military announces rule changes to reservist call-up system
02/03/2021 02:30 PM
CNA file photo
Taipei, Feb. 3 (CNA) Taiwan s military on Wednesday announced that beginning in 2022 it will introduce new rules governing the call up of reservists to improve the combat readiness of the country s reserve forces.
Under the new policy, call-ups will be for two weeks training rather than the current five to seven days, and can occur every year rather than two years as now, said Han Gan-ming (韓岡明), chief of the All-out Defense Mobilization Office under the Ministry of National Defense (MND).
The proposal will begin as a limited two-year trial from 2022-2023 before a full-scale launch in 2024, Han said.
Recent Chinese intrusions into Taiwan s ADIZ aimed at U.S.: analyst
01/31/2021 05:45 PM
A Y-8 tactical reconnaissance plane. Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense.
Taipei, Jan. 31 (CNA) Amid Beijing s frequent air sorties into Taiwan s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the two largest maneuvers on Jan. 23 and 24 were directed more at the new Joe Biden administration of the United States than Taiwan, according to an expert with a government-funded think tank in Taiwan.
The observation was made in a paper by Hung Tzu-chieh (洪子傑), an assistant research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR).
According to Taiwan s Ministry of National Defense, China s People s Liberation Army (PLA) sent warplanes into the airspace between Taiwan and the Dongsha (Pratas) Islands in the South China Sea on at least 100 days in 2020.
23 Min Read
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Months after eliminating a popular challenge to its rule in Hong Kong, China is turning to an even higher-stakes target: self-governing Taiwan. The island has been bracing for conflict with China for decades, and in some respects, that battle has now begun.
FILE PHOTO: Hong Kong anti-government protesters attend a rally in support of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen outside the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan January 11, 2020. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo
It’s not the final, titanic clash that Taiwan has long feared, with Chinese troops storming the beaches. Instead, the People’s Liberation Army, China’s two-million-strong military, has launched a form of “gray zone” warfare. In this irregular type of conflict, which stops short of an actual shooting war, the aim is to subdue the foe through exhaustion.