Taiwan’s defense spending to focus on readying for ‘total blockade’ by PRC

Reuters

Taiwan’s defense spending in 2023 will focus on preparing weapons and equipment for a “total blockade” by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), including parts for F-16 fighter jets and replenishing weapons, the self-governed island’s military reported.

The PRC, which views Taiwan as its territory, staged war games around the island in August 2022, firing missiles over Taipei and declaring no-fly and no-sail zones in a simulation of how its military would seek to cut Taiwan off in a war.

In a report seeking parliamentary budget approval, Taiwan’s defense ministry said it began reviewing its strategic fuel reserves and repair abilities in 2022 but did not give details.

In “anticipation of a total blockade of the Taiwan Strait,” spending in 2023 would include replenishment of artillery and rocket stocks, and parts for F-16s “to strengthen combat continuity,” the ministry said.

In an update to its threat assessment, the ministry said the Chinese military has been conducting joint force operations with an eye to controlling strategic chokepoints and denying access to foreign forces.

“Recently, the communist military’s exercise and training model has been adjusted from a single military type to joint operations of land, sea, air and rocket forces,” the report said. “It is adopting an actual war approach and shifting from training to combat preparation.”

The PRC’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, even though the island has never been part of the PRC.

Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping said in March 2023 that the PRC must modernize its military to make it a “Great Wall of Steel.”

Taiwan’s defense ministry said the PRC has systematically increased the strength of its “joint combat readiness” around the island, including more than 1,700 incursions by Chinese military aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone in 2022, which was more than double the previous year’s total and poses a “substantial threat.” (Pictured: Taiwan F-16 fighter jets conduct drills in January 2022.)

The PRC has been “normalizing” no-navigation zones around the Bohai and Yellow seas and the Taiwan Strait, the ministry noted, and Beijing hopes to hone its ability to fight into the “second island chain,” which stretches from Japan to the Pacific islands, to “choke and control” the Bashi Channel and Miyako and Tsushima straits, which are crucial access points to the Pacific Ocean and East China Sea.

The ministry said the PRC also continues to use “gray-zone” tactics to test Taiwan’s responses, including sending drones, balloons and fishing boats close to the island.

The ministry also said it would prioritize funding in the 2023 budget for major United States-made weapons, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers.

IMAGE CREDIT: REUTERS