Ukraine’s fightback against the Russian invasion offers Taiwan lessons on building up effective asymmetric capabilities to defend against an attack from mainland China, Taiwanese officials and analysts said. They also urged Taiwan to learn from the way Ukraine has mobilised its people to join the military in an all-out resistance effort. When Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24, many thought it would be a matter of days before the much mightier army prevailed over Ukrainian forces. However, the war is well into its fourth week and Ukrainians are still fighting back hard. “The lesson we can draw from the Russia-Ukraine war is that, despite its military disadvantages, Ukraine is still able to use the uniqueness of its domestic battlefield and asymmetric capabilities to resist a giant enemy like Russia,” Taiwanese Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said. Addressing a legislative session last week on the security implications of the war in Ukraine for the Taiwan Strait, Chiu said Taiwan was studying how Ukrainians were keeping Russian aggression at bay with “asymmetric warfare”, a reference to the use of movable and easy-to-operate weapons. Beijing sees self-ruled Taiwan as breakaway territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary. Tensions have escalated in recent years with the People’s Liberation Army sending warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence zone and staging war games nearby, as Beijing tries to ramp up pressure on the island’s independence-leaning leader Tsai Ing-wen who has rejected the one-China principle . Speculation has been rife since the invasion of Ukraine that Beijing might be inspired to launch its own assault across the Taiwan Strait, though both sides have stressed that the two issues are not comparable . Taiwan, which has nonetheless stepped up its alert level since war broke out in Ukraine, has long favoured upgrading its more expensive main weapons platforms, including advanced fighter jets and large warships, with informal ally US a major supplier . However, in the last few years, the island has also focused on developing its asymmetrical warfare capabilities at the insistence of Washington, which views Beijing as its main geopolitical and military rival. Taiwan holds live-fire drills on islet nearest mainland China Testifying at a Senate hearing on March 10, the US assistant defence secretary for strategy, plans and capabilities, Mara Karlin, said Taiwan should enhance its asymmetric capabilities to defend against a PLA attack. “The situation we’re seeing in Ukraine right now is a very worthwhile case study … about why Taiwan needs to do all it can to build asymmetric capabilities, to get its population ready, so that it can be ready as quickly as possible should China choose to violate its sovereignty,” Karlin said. Jessica Lewis, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, also said that the Ukraine crisis demonstrated the need to focus on asymmetric warfare, which she defined as “cost-effective, mobile, resilient, and decentralised offensive systems”. Rather than more conventional arms, Lewis said weapons such as short-range air defence systems, naval sea mines, coastal defence and cruise missiles were “used to great effect in Ukraine”. Handheld or shoulder-fired anti-tank and anti-air missiles, including FGM-148 Javelins and FIM-92 Stingers supplied by the US, were reported to have helped the Ukrainian military destroy hundreds of Russian armoured vehicles and a number of helicopters. While the Javelin follows a flight path that hits targets from the top, where the armour is weaker, the Stinger is a 15kg (33-pound) shoulder-mounted missile that uses an infrared sensor to locate an aircraft by its heat. Taiwan has acquired both types of missiles from the US. The army also purchased an additional 42 Javelin systems and 400 missiles two years ago at a cost of NT$3.43 billion (US$120.9 million). “Unlike Russia which can send its forces to Ukraine by land, the geographical situation of Taiwan and the mainland is different, as they are separated by the Taiwan Strait. So, Taiwan’s use of asymmetric warfare would focus on the sea and air,” said Chieh Chung, a security researcher at the National Policy Foundation, a Taipei-based think tank affiliated with the island’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang. He said Taiwan could easily deploy its Javelin and Stringer troops along its coast to strike PLA amphibious forces and hit their aerial targets if they tried to land on the island. Chieh said Taiwan’s other affordable precision-guided air-defence weapons, as well as ship-launched and land-based missiles, were also effective in boosting the island’s asymmetric capabilities and cutting off logistics and supplies for PLA forces attempting to attack. Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research, a government think tank in Taipei, said there had been 18 lots of US arms sales to Taiwan since former US president Donald Trump was in office. Of these, 16 “were related to boosting our asymmetric capabilities”, he said. “This shows that there has been a tacit understanding between the two sides that enhancing our asymmetric capabilities can achieve the greatest defence effect for us.” In addition to acquiring various types of missiles from the US, Taiwan is developing its own, including the Tien Kung-3 surface-to-air missile, the Wan Chien air-to-ground missile, and the Hsiung Sheng cruise missile, an upgraded version of the longer-range Hsiung Feng 2E land-attack missile, which military experts say can hit targets further inland in mainland China. “The idea is to build Taiwan as a porcupine to deter potential attacks from China,” said Wang Ting-yu, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and member of the legislature’s foreign relations and defence affairs committee. US touts Taiwan ‘porcupine’ strategy to thwart Chinese threat Taiwan’s cabinet approved NT$240 billion in extra spending over the next five years to buy locally developed weapons, mostly missiles, and smaller-sized warships. A recent report submitted to the legislature by the military revealed plans to double annual missile production capacity to 497 from the current 207 a year. Analysts said apart from the asymmetric warfare strategy that has played such an impressive role in the Ukraine war, Taiwan must also take into account the importance of logistics, mobilisation, internet and social media networks at wartime. “Social media and online communication have become part of the war this time,” said Alexander Huang Chieh-cheng, a professor of international relations and strategic studies at Tamkang University in New Taipei City . Regular videos are shared on social networks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose decision to remain in the capital Kyiv amid fierce Russian shelling has rallied most of the world to his side and prompted Ukraine’s civilian population to join the military in fighting against Russian invaders. Ukraine’s enlistment of citizens to join the military has also underscored the importance of maintaining a combat-ready all-out defence force, something Taiwan has tried to strengthen through reforming its much-criticised reservist mobilisation system and toughening up training programmes. “The situation in Ukraine showed that in addition to international support and assistance, unity of the people is very important,” President Tsai told a group of reservists last Saturday during an inspection of their new training regimen aimed at enhancing combat readiness. “I hope through the training, you will be able to nurture a stronger sense of unity and responsibility in protecting our homeland.”