Caution or Paranoia? Taiwanese President Tsai Stashing Anti-Tank Missiles Near Offices, Residence

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing Wen has ordered the deployment of Kestrel anti tank missiles near her offices and residence for protection against possible attacks by Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) assets. This was reportedly ordered in response to the president’s fears of PLA “decapitation strikes” - according to former lawmaker Chiu Yi. These were just one of the assets the president had ordered, with the lawmaker stating: “While reports said the missiles would help defend government complexes and the people, they were intended to protect only President Tsai and her cohorts.” He noted, however, that the Kestrel would struggle to penetrate advanced PLA battle tanks such as the Type 99. The deployment appears unusual considering that a decapitation strike is unlikely to rely on battle tanks, and such operations usually rely on precision guided air launched missiles or mobile special forces units.

The Kestrel is among the most advanced rocket launchers in the world, reportedly comfortably outperforming its Western analogues such as the American Mk 153 and Swedish AT4, and has been in service with Taiwan’s armed forces since 2015. With the PLA modernising it’s capabilities rapidly from the early 1990s, the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait is increasingly skewed in favour of the Chinese mainland across the spectrum from armour to aerial warfare, leading to growing concerns in Taipei that Beijing could initiate an attack to reunify the country. Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a rival Chinese state which claims sovereignty over the entire Chinese mainland - becoming a politically separate entity from the mainland following the Chinese Civil War's conclusion in 1949.