The Taiwanese government has criticized China’s latest psychological warfare attempt amid growing tensions between them.
In May, Chinese researchers claimed that Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army could “with certainty” destroy a US Navy aircraft carrier group with only 24 hypersonic anti-ship missiles.
Taipei national security officials say the Chinese claim is part of a persistent intimidation campaign aimed at undermining public confidence in Taiwan’s military.
They pointed out that the results of the Chinese war game were “drastically different” from the outcome of Taiwan’s own simulation, which included “realistic parameters.”
‘Intimidation Rather Than Aggression’
According to Taiwanese war game expert Lin Chuan-kai, the Chinese simulation was replicated by the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
It showed that only two of the six ships in the US Navy carrier strike group were sunk, as opposed to the five reported by Beijing researchers.
The institute also found that the Dongfeng-20 and Dongfeng-26 ballistic missiles used in the simulation would only sink US vessels when stationary.
“They got the result that they can finish off pretty much the entire carrier strike group, but our results showed they would only do marginal damage. We were curious how the difference could be that stark,” Lin explained.
The difference in the war game results reportedly prove that China’s behavior should be seen as “intimidation” rather than “aggression.”
