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3 September 2024

Taiwan — Lessons From Ukraine

Doug Livermore

As they gaze out at the straits separating their island state from China, the Taiwanese military can see an awful lot. It’s not a pretty picture. Radars detect whole squadrons of Chinese attack aircraft blithely crossing into Taiwan’s air defense zone, spy balloons drifting over the country, or naval and other vessels taking station to practice strangulation of the island state. Chinese propagandists make no secret of their goal — enforced Taiwanese capitulation or invasion.

How to fight this war, if and when it comes? Taiwan is preparing — see its increased orders of US equipment and its record defense budget — but it is also taking note of what is happening in Ukraine. Because the nature of war has changed and the old answers are very likely inadequate to meet the threat.

On the plus side, as the threat grows, so do the defensive possibilities. Ukraine is, in many ways, a completely different strategic challenge, but if the right lessons are drawn, it can help inform a smarter and more resilient approach to the Chinese menace. The war is, after all, the most recent large-scale, advanced tech war the world has seen.

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