In the case of a battle between China and Taiwan, Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng stated both sides would pay a high price.
It will be a “miserable victory” for whoever wins any future battle between Taiwan and China, Taiwan Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said on Thursday, adding that it would be preferable if everyone avoided confrontation. Chiu, speaking to reporters before of a parliament debate on the security implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said that in the case of a confrontation between China and Taiwan, which Beijing has sworn to retake by force if necessary, both sides would pay a high price.
“To be honest, if there is a war, everyone will be miserable, including the victor,” he remarked. “This is something that needs to be thought through,” Chiu remarked. “Wars should be avoided by everyone.” While Taiwan’s alert level has been raised since the Ukraine conflict, no noteworthy Chinese military activity have been recorded, but China’s air force has continued to fly infrequent sorties within Taiwan’s air defence identification zone.
“We are calmly watching the changes and preparing accordingly,” Chiu said of China. In a report to the legislative session on Wednesday, Taiwan’s China-policy-making Mainland Affairs Council argued that China was too preoccupied with maintaining stability for a major Communist Party congress at the end of the year to unexpectedly exacerbate hostilities with Taiwan.
Taiwan’s military planners have been studying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as the country’s resistance, in preparation for a confrontation with its massive neighbour China.
“Ukraine has effectively delayed the Russian military’s combat activities under unfavourable conditions of an adversary that is larger than them,” the defence ministry said in a separate report to the session on Thursday.
According to the ministry, Taiwan’s military has been “referencing” Ukraine’s experience in being able to leverage fighting on home soil and has already begun implementing “asymmetric warfare” into its own preparation. President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan has advocated developing “asymmetric warfare” to make Taiwan’s military more mobile and difficult to assault, such as vehicle-mounted missiles.
