TAIWAN UP AGAINST CHINA’S ‘GRAY ZONE’ WARFARE

Taiwan is slowly being tested by China, with its aircraft regularly probing deep into the median line that separates their air spaces, and the “gray zone warfare” is pushing the island-nation to develop a defense system that could deter Chinese invasion and show to Beijing that Taipei’s 23 million people do not want to be another Tibet or Xinjiang.

In a special report for Reuters, Yimou Lee, David Lague and Ben Blanchard said while China has declared that it prefers peaceful means to achieve reunification with Taiwan, which it considers to be a breakaway province, the fact is Chinese President Xi Jinping salivates to secure control of Taiwan before he dies since it would constitute an important part of the first chain of defense for the Chinese mainland, which includes the chain of islets, cays, sandbars and atolls in the South China as well as the Senkakus, an island chain disputed by China and Japan.

However, despite more than three decades of diplomatic maneuvers to isolate Taiwan, it has not stopped the island from achieving prosperity, even beating China in manufacturing advanced microchips required worldwide, particularly in high-tech sweatshops of China. Taiwan is also developing its own jet fighters and missiles aside from securing 400 Harpoon missiles from the US, which miffed Beijing.

Nonetheless, retired Taiwanese Admiral Lee Hsi-ming said his country should develop fast missile boats, camouflage its air bases, naval facilities and military outposts to absorb an initial Chinese siege before launching counter-attacks. Lee argues that Taiwan cannot depend on the US to defend the island and must develop its own weapons systems to make it costly for China to invade. With global distrust of China at a record high, any invasion would face military actions by other powers and make Beijing a pariah. Yet, at the core, the Taiwanese can learn much from Mao Zedong’s military doctrines, particularly on how a small nation can defeat a superpower, like what Vietnam did to the US and China, and from the advice of US officials for Taiwan to be a porcupine that no lion or tiger dares to gobble up.