Taiwan has decided to embrace asymmetric means to inflict casualties on a Chinese invasion force. That alone won't work.
Taiwan has agreed to do what the "cool kids" want them to do:
Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te announced that his government will introduce the Special Budget for Asymmetric Warfare on November 25—the largest special budget in Taiwanese history. The proposed budget would markedly improve Taiwanese warfighting capabilities and its efforts to implement an asymmetric defense strategy to deter a PRC invasion. The proposed budget amounts to approximately 40 billion US dollars to be spent from 2026 to 2033. The budget is twice as large as Taiwan’s second largest special budget passed in October 2025. The budget reportedly allocates funds for arms, including precision artillery, long-range precision strike munitions, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, unmanned aerial and surface vehicles, drone countermeasure systems, and artificial intelligence-assisted command and control systems. Taiwanese media reported that Taiwan would either domestically produce those systems or buy them from the United States. [emphasis in original]
I'm not against a variety of weapons and systems to conduct combined arms and joint operations. But there's a disturbing magical unicorn aspect to the whole thing, no?
I don't think we have any idea what level of casualties will deter China from invading Taiwan.
And if China manages to push through the casualties using a lot of transport means to establish bridgeheads on Taiwan, the Chinese only have to hang on. Taiwan will find it needs those "obsolete" weapons like tanks to drive the PLA into the sea.
Because as I observed in Military Review, if the PLA remains on Taiwan after a ceasefire, China will be poised to win in a future military campaign.
Have a super sparkly day.
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