SEOUL/TAICHUNG (NYTIMES) - On a cloudy day last month, thousands of soldiers massed on a beach in central Taiwan for the culmination of five days of exercises intended to demonstrate how the island's military would repel an invasion from China.. Read more at straitstimes.com.
SEOUL/TAICHUNG - On a cloudy day last month, thousands of soldiers massed on a beach in central Taiwan for the culmination of five days of exercises intended to demonstrate how the island's military would repel an invasion from China.
"I have to be honest: Taiwan's military needs to improve a lot," Mr Wang Ting-yu, a member of the parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee, said in a telephone interview.Military tensions across the Taiwan Strait have surged in recent months as Taiwan has increasingly become a focal point in the confrontation between China and the United States.
China's authoritarian leader, Mr Xi Jinping, has long threatened to use force, if needed, to prevent any movement toward formal independence for Taiwan, a self-governing democracy. "The likelihood of a military clash is much higher than before," said Mr Lin Yu-fang, a Taiwanese former legislator from the opposition party that ruled the island for decades, the Kuomintang.She has moved to revamp Taiwan's military doctrine and strengthen its reserves, a force that would be crucial to defending the island in the event of an invasion.
"Grovelling will not bring national security," Ms Tsai, wearing combat fatigues and body armour, declared at the beach exercise in July. He did not elaborate, but Ms Tsai said in an interview last year that Taiwan would be able to hold out for 24 hours and then China would face international pressure.
Those include the island's geography and the technical superiority it once had from buying American and other foreign weaponry. They argue resources would be better used on capabilities that would slow or even cripple an invading force. Under Mr Ma, when relations improved a bit, Taiwan began to phase out mandatory conscription for all young men, which was deeply unpopular, in favour of an all-volunteer force.
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