Taiwan’s Minister of National Defense says a key goal of the military is to counter the threat of China’s so-called “gray-zone” warfare. That comes a week after the Ministry published the results of its 2021 Quadrennial Defense Review.
Gray-zone warfare refers to the “gray” area between peace and the state of war. In China’s case, this involves wearing down Taiwan’s will and capacity to resist attack through almost daily incursions into Taiwanese air defense zones. That’s on top of conducting amphibious landing training exercises and naval patrols.
Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng clarified the military’s strategy at a meeting of the Legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee on Thursday. Chiu says the danger is that China will seek to move gradually from gray-zone to outright war.
To counter this threat, Taiwan has been expanding its domestic weapons manufacturing and developing new long-range strike missiles. Central to that goal is the state-owned National Chung-Shan Institute of Science & Technology. The Institute’s director reported on Thursday that Taiwan already has one long-range strike missile in production, and three more in development.
Other targets of the review include improving asymmetric warfare capabilities, using technology to facilitate military coordination, and promoting the domestic weapons industry.