It’s a typical day in Taiwan, and China is conducting yet another round of military drills. As Chinese warships and planes yet again aggressively circle around Taiwan, Taipei scrambles its military to defensive positions across the island. Among the most important is a cohort of mobile ground units carrying anti-ship missiles to deter Chinese ships from invading. But unknown to the Taiwanese, their movements are exposed, and their supposedly secretive hideouts are readily tracked by China’s intelligence. If this were an actual war, they would be seconds away from destruction.
This was an actual chain of events in May, just days after Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te was inaugurated on May 20. Beijing accuses Lai and his Democratic Progressive Party of pursuing independence for Taiwan—but it takes very little nowadays to provoke China into imposing another round of exercises around the island it claims as part of its territory.
On May 23, Taipei dispatched its military to confront China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the air and the sea just as before, though again no shot was fired. The Chinese exercises soon ended, and Taiwan’s ruling government went on a victory lap, claiming that its military had everything under control and people should rest assured.
But days later in June, an article appeared on WeChat, China’s largest social media platform. It was published by Beijing Lande Information Technology Co., a Beijing-based Chinese company that says it offers “research and consulting services” in the defense and security fields. The article, accessible publicly on WeChat, showcases the company’s ability to collect intelligence on Taiwan’s military.Locations of Hai Feng Anti-Ship Missile Unit Bases and Launchers
Locations of Hai Feng Anti-Ship Missile Unit Bases and Launchers
A typical Hai Feng squadron comprises at least three to four missile launchers, escorted by several support vehicles. The idea is that they are difficult for the Chinese to track down once mobile. They could waltz into random spots across Taiwan, raise their launchers, fire a salvo of anti-ship missiles at the Chinese fleets, and disperse before the PLA’s counterattack strike arrives—a military tactic known as “shoot and scoot.”
But alarmingly, the Chinese article exposed several exact locations across Taiwan where Hai Feng units were deployed in a shoot-ready posture on May 23. Pictures showed the units with their launchers raised and using camouflage nets. One squadron was located in the parking lot of a beachside resort hotel in Yilan in northwestern Taiwan, another in the parking lot of a marine aquarium near the port of Taichung, Taiwan’s second-largest city. In the southernmost tip of Taiwan, a squadron was in a parking lot inside Kenting National Park.
