TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As China’s military drills around Taiwan increase, it is becoming harder to discern when Beijing might be transitioning from a training exercise to war, said Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄).
Speaking to the media on Wednesday (Sept. 18), Koo said China has verified its ability to attack Taiwan in various ways, and Taiwan needs to test its ability to respond to a “potential sudden contingency.” He said Taiwan should observe China’s military behavior to create scenarios for its response exercises, per CNA.
Ko stressed, “We must consider how we differentiate between peacetime and wartime.” He said that as the scale of China’s exercises grows, it will be more difficult to discern when Chinese troops are transitioning from “training to a large exercise, and from a large exercise to war.”
Koo said Taiwan’s reaction time to an emergency "cannot be as long as imagined in the past.” He said China has combined "formal and informal,” including gray zone tactics, joint sea and air training, and targeted military exercises, to verify its capability of attacking Taiwan and resisting foreign forces.
Regarding the recent speedboat incursions by Chinese nationals into Taiwan’s surrounding waters, Koo said, “It cannot be ruled out that it is a gray zone tactic combined with cognitive operations." He added speedboats are small and difficult to detect by radar, but the Army and Coast Guard have a joint defense mechanism and will improve deficiencies.
China’s Joint Sword-2024A military exercise after President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) took office in May showed Beijing’s intent to normalize large-scale military drills around Taiwan. Earlier this month, China conducted joint landing exercises on its southeastern province of Fujian facing Taiwan.
Taiwan has counted 2,076 incursions this year by China’s People’s Liberation Army into its air defense identification zone (ADIZ). Beijing has also sent non-military government ships such as coastguard, marine research, and maritime safety vessels.
