The success of any Chinese invasion of Taiwan necessarily involves an amphibious
landing operation on Taiwan’s beaches. The most vulnerable of these beaches
have been referred to as “Red Beaches.” Despite the threat of China’s invasion of
Taiwan garnering significant attention in recent years, little of this attention has
been devoted to the questions of how Taiwan defends these critical Red Beaches
and to what extent Taiwan’s Red Beach defensive strategy has evolved. Employing
Lykke’s Ends-Ways-Means analytical framework, this paper seeks to answer these
questions by examining Taiwan’s Red Beach defensive strategy during the Tsai Ingwen administration (2017-present). The main findings are that contrary to popular
understanding, Taiwan’s defense strategy has undergone significant change entering
Tsai’s second term. The range of Red Beach defensive operations has extended from
the littoral zone to as far as Chinese territory, with the planned use of pre-emptive
missile and air-to-ground strikes against “key nodes” of PLA forces. Together with
the significantly increased role of Taiwan’s missile, naval and air force capabilities,
Taiwan’s current Red Beach defense strategy can be characterized as having greater
range, more integrated, and more offensive.
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