Taiwan has a secret doomsday plan for China

Shirvan (0:00)

This is a satellite image of the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei, China. Impounding the Yangtze River, it stands over 100 meters high and two kilometers long, creating a reservoir covering 1,000 square kilometers and nearly 40 cubic kilometers in volume. As the world's largest hydropower project, it supplies 20 million people with electricity and assists drought and flood management in the Yangtze Basin. Yet, since construction began in the 1990s, its status as a strategic infrastructure has made it a target for a hypothetical Taiwanese strategy described as chilling, devastating and cataclysmic. Though not official policy, some military planners in Taipei have suggested that in a conflict scenario with China, an attack on the dam could wipe out the lower Yangtze, destroying vital military and industrial installations, and flooding Nanjing, Shanghai and Wuhan, thereby inducing mutual assured destruction. Sure, Taiwan would be obliterated in retaliation, but it would go down swinging. It's one of the most apocalyptic military strategies of the 21st century. And while most people are not into politics, they are into survival. And when it comes to survival, nothing is contemptible.

Taiwan's doomsday plan would be a disaster for all, one that would reach far beyond the Asian continent and into our own lives. Already, disputes in the region have struck at our wallets and savings, like the ongoing chip shortage and soaring supply costs. The Wall Street Journal even reports that slowing exports could cause rippling recessions worldwide. This would be devastating as the S&P 500 is currently being carried by only seven major companies, without which it hasn't even broken 5%.

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On October 1st, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China in Tinaman Square.

22 years of civil conflict interrupted by a war with Japan culminated in a Communist Party victory on the mainland, and the retreat of the Guamingtung forces to Taiwan. Neither side ever abandoned their claims to all of the mainland and Taiwan. But as time moved on, the war settled into a frozen conflict, with the notion of one China forming the bedrock of cross-strait relations. Yet, the practical implications of this policy were anything but clear-cut. The dispute remained one of legitimacy more than territory. In the initial stages of the Cold War, diplomatic recognition corresponded to geopolitical alignment. Over time, though, the Sino-Soviet split and Dao Xiaoping's reform programs saw the mainland's economic and geopolitical relevance increase. And in 1979, Washington settled on an arrangement where official recognition passed to the mainland, while substantial, though semi-official, security guarantees were advanced to Taiwan, which retained its de facto independence. But this left the ultimate question of the island's status unresolved. And in recent years, China's emergence as a great power has brought the issue back to the fore. Strategically speaking, Taiwan is a thorn in Beijing's side, and an ace up Washington's sleeve. As such, China seeks to make good on its territorial claims, while Washington maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity regarding the island's defense. Thus, while Washington's commitment to maintaining Taiwan's de facto status is steadfast, and a full-scale Chinese invasion is currently unlikely, Taipei wants to leave nothing to chance. An independently operable deterrent is the best way for Taiwan to retain self-rule while lessening reliance on the United States. Ordinarily, this deterrent's function could be served by nuclear weapons. But given Taiwan's ambiguous diplomatic status, the acquisition or development of such assets would be perceived as a move towards separatism, which Beijing would translate as an act of war. The ethical basis of this conundrum is dubious, but so is war. By itself, war does not determine who is right, only who is left. This then brings us to one of the world's most destructive war plans of the 21st century. Blowing up the Three Gorges Dam.

Accordingly, an attack on the Three Gorges could hypothetically meet Taiwan's deterrent objectives without nuclear weapons. In essence, it is a plan to do more with less. Ensuring the threat of mutually assured destruction by conventional means.