Taiwan’s military has resumed “anti-communist” patriotic classes for its graduates after a quarter-century gap, the defense ministry said on Sunday, citing a rising threat from China as a senior official reported another rise in Chinese naval activity.
During the Cold War, campaigns in Taiwan warning against the dangers of the “communist bandits” in China, whose government views the island as its own territory, were widespread.
But the formal “anti-communist patriotic education” for military graduates ended in 2002, being renamed “patriotic education.”
Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a statement that the classes for its military academy graduates had been restored due to rising military and infiltration danger from China.
“It is necessary for them to clearly understand national security threats and recognize the military mission of ‘why we fight, and for whom we fight’,” the statement said.
China’s defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment outside office hours. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
Officials from departments including the China-policy-making Mainland Affairs Council, the National Security Council, the Ministry of Justice and top government think tank Academia Sinica will offer lectures to the graduates, Taiwan’s defense ministry said.
“The aim is to establish among graduates a clear awareness of friend and foe,” it added.
As of Friday, Taiwan was tracking a record of more than 110 Chinese military and Coast Guard ships up and down the first island chain, Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, posted on X late on Saturday.
“China’s massive maritime mobilization along the 1st Island Chain is a clear sign of its expansionism,” Wu said, referring to an area stretching from Japan to Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo.
On Saturday, China’s Coast Guard launched a new patrol off Taiwan’s east coast, drawing a sharp response from Taipei, which says Beijing has no jurisdiction in those waters. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
The Chinese and Russian navies will hold joint exercises in the waters and airspace off the Chinese city of Qingdao next week, China’s defense ministry and Russian state media said on Sunday.
“Following the exercises, some of the forces from both sides will proceed to relevant areas of the Pacific Ocean to carry out joint maritime patrols,” it said in a statement.
