The proposition: the ROC is underreporting what the PRC is constantly doing to it.
This doesn’t seem too likely given the number of news stories that appear daily about China’s nonstop military maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait and even over Taiwan.
But there would be more international awareness of what is going on and sympathy for Taiwan if the ROC provided more pictures and video of China’s intimidatory antics—more “transparency.” This is what a “maritime transparency project director” at Stanford argues (Focus Taiwan, August 8, 2024).
To engage the public at home and the international community, the Taiwanese government should release footage and images of China’s “gray zone” maneuvers around Taiwan, including standoffs between Taiwanese and Chinese coast guard ships around the Kinmen Islands, Ray Powell, director of Sealight at Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center, told a press event held by Forward Alliance in Taipei.
Gray zone activities refer to actions that fall between traditional notions of war and peace. These activities typically involve ambiguous or nontraditional methods that aim to achieve strategic objectives without overtly crossing the threshold into open conflict.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry currently relies mostly on flight maps and press releases of Chinese warplane incursions into its air defense identification zone; however, to get the public and lawmakers on board with projects and items the country is funding with defense spending, Taiwan needs to “show the public what these things look like,” he said.
The Philippines provides Powell’s example of effective visual records of China’s gray-zoning. Early in 2023, the country began asking its coast guard to film the frequent incidents of China’s “resolute” ramming and swarming of Philippine ships that are just going about their business in the Philippine part of the South China Sea.
Powell suggests that the pictures and video inspired greater international support for the Philippines and perhaps greater financial support from the United States, support that helped the country strengthen its defenses against China.
