Ep 178 | Taiwan's Civil Defense Preparedness: T.H. Schee on How to Prepare for the Threat of an Attack

Apr 10, 2022

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A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put the reality of war on display for the world, especially for Taiwan, which like Ukraine, has been under the constant threat of military aggression of an unfriendly neighbor. Because of the war that’s been happening in Ukraine there’s been talk of how Taiwan must improve its military defense capabilities and preparedness, but beyond this, there are people in Taiwan wondering what they themselves can do to be prepared, should Taiwan come under attack.

My guest on this episode of Talking Taiwan, T.H. Schee, a representative of Open Knowledge Taiwan, is one of those people asking these important questions.

We’d like to dedicate this episode to the memories of David Kilgour, who passed away on April fifth at the age of 81 and Peng Ming-min who passed away on April eighth at the age of 98. Mr. Kilgour, who I interviewed recently, was a human rights activist, and a former Member of Canada’s Parliament, having served in the House of Commons for nearly 27 years, as Secretary of State for Latin America & Africa from 1997-2002, and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific from 2002-2003.

Dr. Peng Ming-Min was a pro-Taiwan independence/pro-democracy activist. In 1964 he was arrested for sedition for drafting and printing a manifesto advocating for democracy in Taiwan, he served as president of the Formosan Association of Public Affairs from 1986 to 1988, and in 1996 he ran as a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate in Taiwan's first direct presidential election.

This episode of Talking Taiwan has been sponsored by the Taiwanese United Fund.

The Taiwanese United Fund is an arts and culture foundation that celebrates the cultural heritages of Taiwanese Americans. Established in 1986, the foundation's mission is to facilitate cultural exchange between the Taiwanese American community and other American cultural communities, hoping to enrich and expand our cultural experiences. To learn more about TUF visit their website http://www.tufusa.org/

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

How T.H. became interested and involved with civil defense
The 9/21 earthquake in Nantou
His work with Open Knowledge Taiwan
What is civil defense
Great Britain’s Air Raid Wardens Service
How T.H. has been dealing with disaster response for over ten years
How Taiwan has to deal with disaster response year round due to typhoons and earthquakes
What is digital first aid
Taiwan’s history of civil defense programs in Kimen and Matsu
What is covered in Open Knowledge workshops
The last time that preparedness for war was treated as a priority in Taiwan
The 1995-1996 missile crisis in Taiwan aka the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis
What Taiwan can learn from what’s happening with the war in Ukraine
The challenge of evacuating from Taiwan since it is an island
How prepared Ukrainian civilians were for war
How people can prepare for different levels of crisis: 1) emergency preparation (e.g. power outage/ blackout) 2) natural disaster 3) an attack/invasion/war
The importance of establishing several reliable sources of information in case of a natural disaster
The emerging discussion about how to handle an attack on Taiwan
The importance of being able to identify friend from foe in case of a war in Taiwan
The importance of first aid knowledge
How civil defense in Taiwan is mandated by the national police agency/law enforcement in Taiwan
An explanation of infographics from Open Knowledge that were recently shared on Twitter
How general citizens could seek to improve their preparedness by enrolling in courses offered by hospitals
Preparedness for military reservists
The importance of having secure lines of communication in times of crisis
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense has published a handbook that outlines the roles and responsibilities of the local and central government in times of crisis; the handbook is irrelevant for civilians
T.H.’s thoughts on how the government of Taiwan can better prepare its citizens for war
How the past civil defense programs in Kimen and Matsu prepared and trained civilians for war and what we can learn from them
How the defense sector is a closed circle and Open Knowledge Taiwan is trying to address civilians’ lack of access to defense related information
Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces
How it’s important for Taiwan to improve bi-lateral and tri-lateral exchanges of information
Michael Turton’s piece in the Taipei Times about Taiwan’s preparedness for war
How it’s important to be able to resist the first 72 hours of an attack
How critical points identified at Open Knowledge Taiwan workshops could be turned into policy recommendations for Taiwan’s government