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Military prepared for war after countering PLA 'first strike': Defense minister

ROC Central News Agency

10/12/2022 04:13 PM

Taipei, Oct. 12 (CNA) The military would be prepared for war if it was forced to counter a "first strike" by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said Wednesday at the Legislature.

He was responding to a question by Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Chiang Chi-chen (江啟臣), who asked him to elaborate on a comment he made on Tuesday that incursions by PLA unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) into Taiwan's territorial airspace would now be considered a "first strike" necessitating countermeasures, specifically on what the countermeasures would be.

The military would first lock onto intruding UAVs as a warning, which if not heeded would prompt a defensive "counterattack," Chiu said.

When asked by Chiang whether the counterattack would be aimed at repelling intruding PLA aircraft or preventing a "second strike," Chiu said: "I don't see it that way. After the first strike, we will be ready to respond to further attacks."

Chiang went on to ask Chiu whether launching a counterattack against a first strike would mean the two sides "going to war," to which Chiu replied, "Yes, in which case the situation would be very serious."

"This is why the military has been exercising self-restraint and does not pull the trigger recklessly," Chiu added.

On Oct. 5, Chiu said during a legislative interpellation session that it would be deemed a first strike by the PLA if it flew aircraft into Taiwan's territorial airspace, which would prompt the military to launch "countermeasures."

He also said on Tuesday that in the past, a first strike was defined as artillery attacks, but since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been changing its tactics by increasing the frequency of its drone incursions into Taiwan's territorial airspace, causing "a lot of trouble," such incursions would now also be defined as a first strike.

(By Matt Yu and Sean Lin)

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