MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) Despite showing goodwill and friendliness in economic and cultural exchanges with Taiwan, China has never ceased its military exercises simulating attacks on Taiwan, former Deputy Defense Minister Lin Chong-pin said Thursday.

… China has accelerated its military modernization. In addition to deploying short-range ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army has never stopped drills simulating attacks on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands, cities and airports.

‘Since 2004, the mainland military has refrained from conducting military exercises in its southeastern coastal areas opposite Taiwan, instead staging drills in the Chinese hinterland… While they do not hype their live-fire drills, neither have they ever suspended them,’ said Lin, who is now a professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies.

Moreover, he went on, China has spared no efforts to develop electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons, which do not cause human casualties but disable electronic communication and command systems.

‘Beijing’s top goal is to paralyze Taiwan rather than destroy it,’ Lin noted, adding that the ultimate goal of Beijing’s military hardware development and training drills is to prevent the United States from taking control of Taiwan.” Read more.

Taiwan must have ‘strike back’ capability: US report – “Although former premier Tang Fei said on Aug. 17 that Taiwan’s indigenous Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile would be like a mosquito’s bite on an elephant, a new report by a US think tank argues that Taiwan must have ‘some means of hitting back against Chinese military targets.’ ‘The ability to hit back at Chinese military targets may not have profound operational effects, but when an inferior force takes on a superior one, the ability to strike back has a nontrivial strategic and psychological impact on an attacker,’ said the 38-page Asian Alliances in the 21st Century report, released on Tuesday by the Washington-based think tank Project 2049 Institute.” Read more.