Taiwan expands intelligence operations centre to keep tabs on PLA

More staff have been added to strengthen intelligence gathering and analysis, according to defence ministry report

Air force, navy and army, operational zones and garrisons will be briefed on Taiwan Strait and other regions every six months

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Honour guards fold the Taiwan flag during a ceremony in Taipei. Beijing has ramped up pressure on the island in recent years. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:27pm, 8 Jun 2022

Taiwan’s defence ministry has expanded its joint intelligence operations centre in the face of growing military threats from Beijing, which claims the self-ruled island as its own.

Drawing a lesson from the war in Ukraine – where intelligence operations have played a key role in the country resisting Russia’s invasion – Taiwan’s military has boosted the number of intelligence staff dealing with the People’s Liberation Army.

Staff from the National Security Bureau and Military Intelligence Bureau have been sent to work with the centre’s existing team of 125, according to a defence ministry report sent to the legislature for review. It has also budgeted for another 30 employees to join the centre for fiscal 2022.

Constant PLA drills and sorties into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone and the PLA’s rapid armaments expansion had raised the need for the island to strengthen intelligence gathering and analysis to support its military units, the ministry report said.

Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and has ratcheted up pressure on the island in recent years. As tensions soar across the Taiwan Strait, Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng and US experts have warned that the PLA will have the ability to launch a full-scale attack on the island some time between 2025 and 2027.

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