TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Europe should look to Taiwan for lessons on countering gray-zone tactics, Jhy-Wey Shieh (謝志偉), Taiwan representative to the EU and Belgium, said Wednesday.
In a Euractiv opinion article, Shieh said Taiwan has faced China’s gray-zone activities for years, giving it extensive experience in responding to them.
China sends military aircraft and ships daily into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone and waters, the representative said. It also uses legal warfare as a form of coercion, he added, citing the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law as an example.
Chinese authorities could use the law to persecute those who support Taiwan independence or are critical of the Chinese Communist Party, according to Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council.
Additionally, Taiwan’s submarine communication cables have been severed multiple times, including in February 2023, which left thousands of residents isolated, Shieh said. As a result, Taiwan built a redundant cable network.
“For us, these challenges are not future scenarios discussed in seminars; they are realities that have become part of governance,” he said.
Taiwan gradually embraced a whole-of-society approach against these gray-zone tactics, Shieh said. “Rather than treating resilience solely as a defense issue, Taiwan views it as something that belongs to society as a whole.”
The representative said Taiwan has been dealing with what Europeans now call “hybrid threats” or “grey-zone coercion” in its everyday policymaking for years.
Military readiness is still important, Shieh said. Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang drills are expanding, with longer reserve call-ups and better coordination between the military and civilian emergency services, he said.
The Coast Guard Administration is also closely monitoring suspicious ships, and recent court cases over damaged submarine cables have clarified how to differentiate between accidents and foreign sabotage, he added.
“Perhaps the time has come for Europe to take a closer look at Taiwan,” Shieh said.
