CHINA WATCHIs Taiwan Prepared for a Potential Chinese Attack?
Leaked U.S. documents cast doubt on Taiwan’s air defense capability against potential attacks. Experts, however, say that the island has some robust defense systems.
Taiwan’s air defense capabilities have come into focus in recent weeks, after the Washington Post reported that Taiwan would struggle to handle aerial offensive operations from China, citing classified documents leaked by a 21-year-old American man who was a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard.
The report, which was published in April, claimed that Taiwanese officials doubt their air defense can “accurately detect missile launches” from China and that not enough of Taiwan’s military aircraft are “fully mission capable.” The report also highlighted that Taiwan’s fighter jets could become targets of Chinese missile attacks as it requires at least “a week” to move them to shelters.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry described details in the US newspaper’s report as “untrue” and emphasized that Taiwan had made “appropriate modifications on combat plans” while continuing to bolster its military preparedness. Some analysts agree that the leaked documents underestimate Taiwan’s “robust” missile defense capabilities.
“Taiwan’s long-range early warning radar and space warning can detect missile launches within seconds, and it also has a very impressive command and control system,” said Tony Hu, a former senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the US Department of Defense.
Can Taiwan Counter China’s Large Number of Military Aircraft?
Despite some pushbacks against the characterization of Taiwan’s air defense capabilities in the leaked documents, there are still some doubts about the island’s overall air defense capabilities. One of the sources of concern is the huge disparity between China and Taiwan’s air power.
According to Global Firepower — which ranks nations’ military capabilities — China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has more than 3,000 military aircraft and close to 400,000 personnel in its air force while Taiwan has just over 700 military aircraft and more than 30,000 soldiers in its air force.
But some experts told DW that while China’s superiority in air power can overwhelm some areas of Taiwan’s air defense, the island can neutralize the huge disparity with anti-aircraft missiles. “In the Ukrainian war, even though there is a huge difference in the number of military aircraft between the Ukrainian and Russian air forces, Ukraine could use short-range stinger missiles to gain some air defense capabilities,” Tzu-Yun Su, an analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR) in Taiwan, told DW.
