06-03-22, 11:02
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re: Russia US & Chinas' Hunger For Power Could Unleash a Darker World
China: Taiwan Braces Itself For The Unthinkable Amid Invasion
Peter Dutton Refuses to Confirm If Australia Will Go to War With China If It Invaded Taiwan
- Months After Saying It Would be 'Inconceivable' Not to
Peter Dutton has refused to confirm if Australia would defend Taiwan from China
Mr Dutton previously said it would be 'inconceivable' not to defend the country
The Defence Minister says the focus is to 'deter' China from 'acts of aggression'
Russia's invasion gives speculation over China's steps towards 'reunification'
Daily Mail UK.6 MAR 2022.
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Taiwan Is Arming Itself To Beat A Chinese Invasion. Some New Weapons Are Better Than Others.
Peter Dutton has refused to confirm whether Australia would defend Taiwan militarily if China were to invade the east Asian country.
It comes after the Defence Minister stated last year that it would be 'inconceivable' for the Australian military not to join the U.S. and protect Taiwan.
Mr Dutton noticeably toned down his comments on the matter during an appearance on ABC's Insiders - as Russia's invasion of Ukraine gives speculation over whether China could be encouraged to take a proactive step towards 'reunification' with Taiwan.
'I think we do whatever we can to deter China from acts of aggression in our region,' Mr Dutton told Insiders host David Speers on Sunday.
The Taiwanese defense ministry is asking lawmakers for $17 billion for 2022. That record budget, accounting for 2.3% of the country’s gross domestic product, would be a 5% boost over 2021’s spending.
The budget would pay for, among other things, new air-defense missiles for the navy’s six Kang Ding-class frigates plus four MQ-9B armed drones for the air force as well as a host of missiles for that service’s growing fleet of new F-16V fighters.
Most of the proposed expenditures—but not all—align with Taiwan’s increasingly defensive war strategy.
Where once the 24 million-person island democracy boasted more and better ships, planes and tanks than its much more populous enemy, today China with its 1.4 billion people has a quantitative and, increasingly, qualitative military advantage over Taiwan.
So Taipei increasingly is leaning on the natural advantage any defender has against an attacker.
“Unifying” Taiwan with China is the central tenet of the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign policy. But Chinese troops have to go to Taiwan to get what Beijing wants. Taiwanese troops don’t have to move an inch. And they’ve had decades to dig in.
Strategists have a word for this defensive crouch. It’s the “porcupine” approach to warfare.
It’s not for no reason that missiles—plus sensors to guide them and vehicles to launch them—lately have dominated Taipei’s spending plans. In recent years, Taiwanese officials have initiated large-scale purchases of new anti-ship, land-attack and anti-air missiles. The porcupine’s spines. Many hundreds of them.
The idea is to lob so many missiles at an incoming Chinese invasion force that the munitions overwhelm the invaders’ defenses. The goal is to sink half of the potentially hundreds of large ships carrying Chinese troops toward Taiwan’s ports and beaches.
Not all missiles are created equal, however. And some of the investments the Taiwanese military wants to make in 2022 are more worthwhile than others.
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