TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's military strategists are closely monitoring Ukraine's battlefield tactics against the Russian invaders to fine-tune their asymmetric warfare strategies for a potential war with China.

Despite facing overwhelming odds against a much larger opponent, Ukrainian troops have managed to keep Russian forces at bay through the use of relatively small, mobile units carrying asymmetric weapons such as Javelin FGM-148 anti-tank missiles and Stinger FIM-92 man-portable air-defense systems. Massive Russian armored columns have been brought to a halt by the constant harassment of their supply lines with such portable weaponry.

Since taking office in 2016, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has increasingly promoted an asymmetric strategy for Taiwan's defense that has evolved into the "porcupine strategy." This includes multiple layers of large numbers of lighter weapons such as mines, anti-ship missiles, portable air defense systems, and missile corvettes.

Ma Cheng-Kun (馬振坤), director of the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies at National Defense University was cited by Reuters as saying that Ukraine has employed a similar strategy with its mobile weapons to blunt Russian advances. "Ukraine's military has been making full use of asymmetric warfare very effectively and so far successfully holding off Russia's advance," he said.

Referring to extensive footage of Ukrainian troops using Javelin anti-tank missiles to great effect against Russian armored vehicles, Ma said, "That's exactly what our armed forces have been proactively developing." He pointed out that Taiwan has its own indigenous equivalent to the Javelin — the Kestrel anti-armor rocket.

"From Ukraine's performance we can be even more confident in our own," said Ma.