Taiwan’s Preparation Problem

Taiwanese service members in uniform are not adequately prepared for a war with China.

This article appeared in Inkstick on August 20, 2025

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When China launched aggressive military drills during then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan in August 2022, I was surprised that my Taiwanese friends responded with relative calm. I was visiting the island as part of a language program, and my American peers were panic-stricken. But as Chinese missiles rocketed above Taipei and Taiwanese fighter jets sortied from the base near us in Tainan, there seemed to be a collective shrug. Roughly four generations of Taiwanese people have come of age under the existential threat of a Chinese invasion. 

It’s received wisdom that it will never really happen. That has made Taiwan uniquely unprepared for war. 

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Read more of Ransom’s article in Inkstick

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