Taipei recently – and very publicly – announced an extension to mandatory military service periods from four months to a year and accelerated the development of its indigenous weapons program to boost its combat readiness.īut analysts say a recent announcement – one that has perhaps gone less remarked upon in the global media – could prove a game-changer: talks between Taipei and the United States to establish a “contingency stockpile” of munitions on Taiwan’s soil. That blunt assessment will likely have raised doubts in some quarters over whether the island’s military preparations for such a scenario are sufficient. China appeared “to be trying to get ready to launch a war against Taiwan,” the island’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told CNN’s Jim Sciutto. The message, in Taipei’s mind, seemed clear. Thomas Peter/ReutersĬhina’s ruling Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory despite never having controlled it, described the drills as “joint precision strikes” that should serve as a “serious warning against the Taiwan separatist forces.” A Chinese warship fires towards the shore during a military drill near Fuzhou near the Taiwan controlled Matsu Islands that are close to the Chinese coast, China, April 8, 2023.

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