UNIFICATION: The Pentagon said China could pursue a measured approach signaling its readiness for armed conflict or conduct a methodical campaign to force capitulation
Taipei Times
Date: Aug 18, 2018
By: Lee Hsin-fang, Lo Tien-pin and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer and CNA
Taiwan’s military advantages are waning as Beijing continues to modernize
Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa, left, presents a diploma at the National Defense University’s joint graduation ceremony at its campus in Taoyuan’s Bade District yesterday. Photo courtesy of Military News Agency
its armed forces and reinforce preparations for a possible conflict in the Taiwan Strait, the US Department of Defense said in a report released on Thursday.
Taiwan has historically enjoyed military advantages in a potential cross-strait conflict, such as technological superiority and the “inherent geographic advantages of island defense,” the Pentagon said in its report to US Congress titled Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
However, “China’s multi-decade military modernization effort has eroded or negated many of these,” it said.
Although Taiwan is taking steps to compensate, they only partially address the nation’s declining defensive advantages at a time when China’s official defense budget has grown to about 15 times that of Taiwan, it added.
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