First Published Jul 26, 2022, 1:11 PM IST
KThe next day at 1.30 pm, Taiwan (Taiwan) air raid siren sounded. Immediately, residents of northern Taiwan’s towns and cities returned to their homes. Shops and restaurants shuttered in the capital, Taipei. The police asked the vehicles on the street to immediately seek a safe place. Soon the streets were empty of people and vehicles. Fighter jets soared in Taiwan’s skies to chase down enemy planes. At the same time, a ‘missile alert’ message was received on the mobile phones of lakhs of people in the country. Later, a message was received asking the people to move to a safe place. Yes, Taiwan is preparing. To face the threat of aggression from China. War experts point out that this preparation of Taiwan is equivalent to the preparation made by Ukraine in 2021. Taiwan is expecting an attack from China at any moment. The name of the war preparation exercise conducted in Taiwan the other day is ‘Wan An’. It means eternal peace.
Ukraine has been conducting military training for both men and women ever since it received a hint that Russia might attack its country. Finally, by the time Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022, almost 200,000 locals had received military training in the Army Reserve of Ukraine. Taiwan is preparing to provide military training to its entire population in much the same way. Instead of waiting for the threat to materialize, Taiwan also started preparing before the enemy arrived.
For that purpose, there are programs in Taiwan including military training for the people of the country. The missile alert mentioned earlier was a mock drill. The conquest of the island nation of Taiwan, despite its vast coastline, was one of China’s oldest policies of imperial expansion. Taiwan has been the focus of China’s attention since the Communists came to power in China in 1949.
Although Taiwan is officially part of the Republic of China. It has been a free and democratic country for the past 30 years. Military experts also point out that Chinese dictator President Xi Jing Ping is likely to turn against Taiwan, similar to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. Along with that, they also point out that China may also face the setback that happened to Russia in Ukraine in Taiwan.
Currently, the Chinese presence on Taiwan’s sea and air borders is stronger than before. That means China’s air force and navy are more active around Taiwan. During his visit to Taiwan in May, US President Joe Biden stated that if China attacks Taiwan, they will be at the forefront to defend it.
War experts point to China’s turn on Taiwan as the biggest threat to world peace since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and worse than its invasion of Ukraine. To make matters worse, Australia and Japan are already leading alliance efforts against Chinese hegemony in the region.
Taiwan has grown to become one of the wealthiest countries outside of Communist China through the industrial production and export of electronics and machinery. However, until recently, Taiwan had not paid much attention to its defense spending. No Chinese president has gone to war since Deng Xiaoping, who ordered an attack on its southern neighbor Vietnam in 1979.
However, the result was a miserable defeat for China in Vietnam. China is struggling to hide this war defeat from history. Rather, what China is still grappling with today is the Korean War between 1950 and 1953 against US-led UN forces. Even today, China celebrates this war as a model war for Communist China. The possibility of all-out nuclear conflict is alarmingly close.
But even without a nuclear standoff, a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, successful or not, would be devastating to the broader world economy. Like China, North Korea is engaged in nuclear tests. North Korea’s position will also be important if China ends its military preparations. North Korea currently has only diplomatic relations with China.
Japan also needs to resist China’s invasion. The assassination of former Japanese President Shinzo Abe, who had said it was essential for Japan to achieve self-reliance in the field of defense, has created many kinds of unrest in Japan. Meanwhile, China’s efforts to invade Taiwan are getting stronger. Taiwan is one of the world’s leading producers of high-tech electronic components such as semiconductors.
If such equipment manufacturing factories are attacked, it will cause movements all over the world. From computers to mobile phones, the prices of all electronic products will go up. Moreover, war experts say that if China’s invasion of Taiwan is possible, it will upset the economic order not only in the region but also in the world. As an example, they point out that with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, all the world’s food security systems have been disrupted.