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20 February 2023
Invading Taiwan In 10 Easy Steps
New Book Outlines Doomsday for Taiwan
By Wendell Minnick (Whiskey Mike) 顏文德
TAIPEI - Normally I do not review think tank books out of Washington. But this book hits close to home for me and that is a rarity.
There are intimate details of amphibious warfare, airborne troops, and urban combat capabilities.
The new book by the U.S. National Defense University Press entitled Crossing the Strait: China’s Military Prepares for War with Taiwan, is downloadable below as a PDF:
The chapters are written by some big names in the Washington think tank community and are a compilation of papers presented at academic conferences. Some of the names are tiring and say little more than the same dribble, but will still educate a new audience interested in Taiwan as tensions increase.
There is one person who could have simply written his own book from his single chapter and who is basically an unknown and clearly a rising star: Sale Lilly is a senior policy analyst at RAND.
HIs chapter focuses on urban combat in Taiwan and my having lived in Taiwan for 25 years this problem preoccupies more of my time these days.
Lilly wrote “‘Killing Rats in a Porcelain Shop’: PLA Urban Warfare in a Taiwan Campaign.”
The phrase comes from the 1949 two-week battle to take Shanghai without destroying the city. Fortunately the phrase was reintroduced in 2009 by Division Commander Wang Bin regarding Taiwan. Note to reader for future search engine delving: “killing rats in a porcelain shop” [ciqidian li da laoshu, 瓷器店里打老鼠].
China has been improving Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT) over the past twenty years. Ironically, Taiwan’s Military Police Command has been reduced from 20,000 to 3,000 personnel.
Please consult the satellite photographs added to the bottom of this page to understand the problem Lilly examines.
The photographs below are not in the book, but demonstrate the truth of what Lilly is warning about.
I have been a strong advocate of removing the parking lots in front of the Presidential Building that will serve as helicopter offloading of special operations forces.
There is also the soccer field behind the First Girls School across the street, and something has to be done with the massive open area at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall that could accommodate at least four Z-8F/AC313 capable of carrying 30 commandoes (in my opinion).
Am also deeply concerned with the phasing out of the Military Police Command. Ten years ago it was 20,000 troops, now only 3,000 (though the MND includes 2,000 reservists making it 5,000).
Taiwan’s penchant for demilitarization has done little to help morale. In Taiwan “military modernization” actually means “demilitarization”.
CLICK TO ENLARGE:
END