TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) acknowledged the dilemma of balancing transparency and security on Wednesday, responding to calls for more detailed information about Chinese military activity near Taiwan.
Koo's comments came in response to an interview, on Dec. 13, with Thomas Shattuck, senior project manager at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House. He urged Taiwan to provide more specifics about the PLA incursions around Taiwan, per CNA.
Shattuck suggested that greater transparency could help the international community better understand the scale of Chinese military operations.
While Koo said the defense ministry wanted to be open he cautioned that revealing too much could compromise Taiwan’s surveillance capabilities. He added the ministry would continue to assess the appropriate level of disclosure while protecting sensitive operational details.
Shattuck, in a recent article co-authored with PLATracker co-founder Benjamin Lewis, highlighted a decline in the quality and quantity of information released by the ministry regarding PLA activity, per CNA. He pointed out it had previously provided detailed reports on the direction of PLA air formations and specific aircraft designations, but these details are no longer included.
In addition, the ministry had once shared actual footage of PLA activities, which have now been replaced by stock images or computer-generated imagery. Shattuck also noted discrepancies between the Chinese and English versions of defense reports, such as differences in the maps included and variations in the number of aircraft reported.
While he commended the ministry for including rough coordinates and timestamps in its recent reports, he argued the absence of specific aircraft types prevents experts from fully understanding the nature of PLA activities.
The article praised the ministry’s initial efforts to disclose PLA movements, which helped shine a light on Chinese military actions in East Asia and garnered international attention.
Shattuck suggested that without more detailed reporting, incursions in Taiwan's ADIZ have become less significant in the US and elsewhere. He urged the ministry to reconsider its approach to information disclosure.