The “Republic of China National Defense Report 114 (2025)” was released today by Minister of National Defense, Iwayan Gu, pointing out that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been continuously expanding its military power in recent years, with the intention of adopting a “from training to rehearsal to war” model against Taiwan. This has intensified the instability in the Taiwan Strait, prompting countries with similar democratic ideals to enhance their security cooperation.
The Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of China held a press conference today to announce the release of the “National Defense Report for the 114th Year of the Republic of China,” which is issued once every two years. In the preface, Minister Gu mentioned that the CCP has been consistently increasing its military capabilities, conducting frequent military activities in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, and South China Sea, projecting its sea and air forces beyond the first island chain, posing threats and challenges to the security of the Indo-Pacific region and even globally.
Minister Gu emphasized that the various signs of the CCP’s military expansion not only reflect its aggressive attitude but also create pressure on neighboring countries through gray-zone tactics, drawing high attention from the international community. Additionally, the PLA’s joint military exercises and targeted military maneuvers against Taiwan without prior warning aim to transition from training to rehearsal to war, escalating the instability in the Taiwan Strait and urging countries sharing democratic values to strengthen their security cooperation.
Minister Gu stated that besides adhering to the philosophy of “people-oriented” and utilizing “subtractive thinking” to eliminate formalistic burdens, allowing the military personnel to focus more on combat readiness training, the national defense uses a military strategic approach of “defensive deterrence and multi-layered deterrence” to build a direction of “multi-domain deterrence and resilient defense,” integrating strategies of weakening and asymmetric warfare thinking to enhance the overall national defense capabilities, along with strengthening the civil-military integration mechanism.
In terms of resource allocation, the government is gradually increasing the defense budget to continuously enhance military capabilities, focusing on four principles: “constructing asymmetric warfare,” “strengthening defense resilience,” “enhancing reserve forces,” and “building energy to deal with gray-zone activities.” This involves adjusting the military organization structure in conjunction with the procurement of new weapons and equipment, enhancing the readiness of the national defense forces.
Furthermore, in response to technological innovation and modern battlefield changes, the Ministry of National Defense is accelerating the acquisition of new weapons and equipment through self-reliance and external procurement methods. A Defense Innovation Team has been established to introduce innovative technologies and off-the-shelf equipment from the private sector, accelerating the growth of military capabilities, with a focus on advanced technology and artificial intelligence applications. In alignment with the national industrial development strategy, efforts are being made to establish a non-red supply chain primarily based on drones and boats, promoting domestic research and development and production capabilities, achieving the dual goals of national defense and economic development.
The Director of the Office of Defense Policy at the War Regulation Division of the ROC Ministry of National Defense, Hsu Yun-chen, introduced the compilation of the report with the theme of “Agile Resilient National Defense, Firmly Defending the Nation,” based on the national security concept of President’s “Four Pillars of Peace.” It aims to build agile response capabilities, implement comprehensive civil defense resilience, defend the nation with strength, and ensure peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Hsu Yun-chen mentioned that the report is structured into four chapters and eight sections: “Strategic Environment,” “Solid National Defense,” “Cornerstones of Peace,” and “Defense Management,” delineating the current situation in the Indo-Pacific region, security challenges faced by Taiwan, and the innovative thinking and practices of the national defense in constructing asymmetric and resilient defense capabilities, upholding the concept of “being prepared for war to avoid war,” diligently training and preparing for various combat readiness measures, and rallying the national defense will to promote overall societal defense resilience, aiming to prevent war and maintain peace.
Regarding the military threats from the CCP against Taiwan mentioned in the defense report, it pointed out that the CCP actively develops and enhances its military capabilities, posing targeted military threats against Taiwan through various quasi-military operations, cyber-electronic warfare, simulation training, firepower strikes, and blockade and isolation capabilities. In recent years, the CCP has also showcased its military power and blockade and isolation capabilities through military exercises, combined with cognitive operations to confuse the international audience, intensifying military threats against Taiwan.
Regarding the hybrid threats of the gray zone, the defense report mentioned that the CCP never gives up the idea of using force against Taiwan, continuously engaging in quasi-military operations, cyber-electronic warfare, blockade, and isolation to impose targeted military threats against Taiwan synchronously in the ambiguous gray zone, combining propaganda warfare, psychological warfare, legal warfare, cyber attacks, cognitive warfare, economic coercion, and intelligence penetration as hybrid threat tactics, attempting to undermine the morale and sentiments of the people in Taiwan, creating social divisions, waiting for the opportunity to combine military threats and conduct military operations against Taiwan, affecting regional security tensions.
In the fourth chapter, “Military Strength,” of the second part of the defense report titled “Solid National Defense,” it mentioned that spiritual warfare is an essential foundation for troops to perform combat effectiveness, directly influencing the response and determination of officers and soldiers when facing wars and challenges, being a crucial element in building combat power. The military consistently enhances patriotic beliefs, enemy awareness, and media literacy among officers and soldiers to shape their martial virtues, defense concepts, and sense of protecting and defending the country, instilling the core values of “why we fight, and for whom we fight,” effectively enhancing overall combat capabilities.
1. Strengthening the core values of servicemen
This year, with the goal to enhance the collective defense determination of officers and soldiers and construct defense capabilities, the educational program “Guardian Program” has been modularized, adding routine analysis of regional situations and CCP cognitive warfare to establish officers’ and soldiers’ basic media literacy, enabling them to identify CCP’s enticements and united front methods towards Taiwan, fostering patriotism and defense determination, and enhancing overall spiritual combat capabilities.
2. Countering CCP’s cognitive warfare
The CCP creates information dominance across political, economic, cultural, and military dimensions, attempting to disrupt social harmony in our country through narrative control and misinformation in cognitive warfare tactics. To effectively counter the impacts of cognitive warfare, the ROC Ministry of National Defense adopts the principles of proactive preemption and active countermeasures to block the threats and harms brought about by cognitive warfare.
3. Enhancing officers’ and soldiers’ security awareness
With the rapid social changes and developments in internet technology, to enhance military personnel’s awareness of security and counter-espionage, the ROC Ministry of National Defense continues to explore innovative models by activating security education content through various media and improving counter-infiltration measures, establishing a more robust understanding of counterintelligence to counter threats and activities of infiltration by the CCP against the military.
The ROC Ministry of National Defense stated, “The five major national security and United Front threats facing our country, in accordance with the 17 response strategies announced by President Lai in March this year, including ‘comprehensive revision of the military trial law and restoration of the military trial system,’ the Ministry of National Defense is actively researching related legislative operations and accompanying reforms, including the restoration of military trials to handle military crimes defined in the Army, Navy, and Air Force Criminal Law, as well as the enactment of regulations on military judges, military court organization, and military prosecutor’s office, to maintain the purity of the armed forces and defend our country’s sovereignty.”
The ROC Ministry of National Defense explained that the physical book of the defense report will be available for purchase at designated government bookstores (National Bookstore, Five South Cultural Plaza); it can also be downloaded from the Ministry of National Defense’s official website, in the special section for the “114 National Defense Report.”