PLA not yet ready for all-out Taiwan war, island’s military experts say
- Mainland armed forces need another 10 to 15 years of reform to launch full-scale cross-strait attack, experts tell Taipei seminar
- US-led maritime alliance seen to be a bigger headache for Beijing in the near term
Beijing, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province to be reunited by force if needed, has intensified military pressure in recent months, staging war games close to the island and sending dozens of fighter jets into its air defence zone almost daily.
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China urges US President Joe Biden to act cautiously over Taiwan, warns ‘no room for compromise’
This comes amid souring relations across the Taiwan Strait since Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party was elected president in 2016 and refused to accept the one-China principle.
Tsai, who has overseen closer military ties with the US, was re-elected for a second term in 2020. The US has also in recent months reiterated its pledge to defend Taiwan in the case of any cross-strait attack.
As Beijing tries to ramp up pressure on Tsai with the fly-bys and other PLA moves, international concerns over an imminent cross-strait conflict have intensified.
Lin Yu-fang, a security expert at the National Policy Foundation, a think tank affiliated with Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang party, said escalating cross-strait tensions had made the island an international focal point in recent years.
“In the past two years, many foreign experts, retired and incumbent officials have spoken a lot about a possible war between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, written a lot of articles and even books related to this,” Lin told a seminar in Taipei hosted by the foundation on Wednesday.