Over the last month, I couldn't keep proper track of the news in Taiwan while visiting the folks back home, so I promised myself I'd try to refrain from commenting about current events here until I got back up to speed.
Therefore, instead of discussing the libel ruling against Taiwan's major independence party, or the renaming of the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport), I thought I'd spend the next few days talking about If China Attacks Taiwan: Miltary Strategy, Politics and Economics. I'll give a mini-review in this post, and then go through it chapter by chapter over the next few days, mentioning a few facts and bits of trivia that I found interesting or surprising.
(A more in-depth review can be found on Dr. Keating's website here.)
The first thing I noticed about this book in the store was its length (200 pages). Good. I like short books because I can find time to finish them - there are enough 800 page behemoths waiting for me on my shelf, thank you very much.
The disadvantage of such brevity though, is that some rather important topics aren't covered at all. If China Attacks Taiwan does an excellent job in telling the reader what China could throw at Taiwan, and a pretty good job in informing us what Taiwan could do in response. However, it has very little to say about what America could bring to the field, and nothing about a possible Japanese response.
(I confess to be very interested in the latter, and so was a bit disappointed. Of course, add America & Japan to the mix and the book could have easily doubled in length.)
If China Attacks Taiwan is well organized, each chapter being written by a specialist with his own particular area of expertise. Accordingly, one finds entire chapters devoted to short-range ballistic missiles, unconventional warfare, air war, sea war, and logistics. So while it doesn't cover everything, what it does cover, it covers well.
Just a couple things in closing. This an expensive book - $115 over at Amazon.com. That's $115 for 200 pages. Guess I should consider myself lucky that it was "only" $1500 NT ($45) at the Warner Village Eslite.
I'll also say that it's my impression that a few of the authors took great pains explaining why the Communist leadership feels it's important to conquer Taiwan, without stating why it might be equally important for the Taiwanese, Americans and Japanese to stand in opposition. Maybe that's a false impression, but it's the one I received when I read it a month ago.
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