TAIPEI — Taiwan’s defense ministry announced Sunday that it has reinstated “anti-communist” patriotic instruction for military academy graduates, ending a roughly 25-year absence of the program and citing an escalating threat posed by China.
During the Cold War era, warnings about the dangers of China’s communist government — which considers Taiwan part of its own territory — were common throughout Taiwanese society. However, formal “anti-communist patriotic education” for military graduates was phased out in 2002, replaced simply by “patriotic education.”
Taiwan’s defense ministry said in an official statement that the classes were being restored because of growing military and infiltration risks from China. “It is necessary for them to clearly understand national security threats and recognise the military mission of ‘why we fight, and for whom we fight,’” the statement read.
Officials from several government bodies will deliver lectures to graduates under the revived program. Those agencies include the Mainland Affairs Council, which shapes Taiwan’s China policy, as well as the National Security Council, the Ministry of Justice, and the top government think tank Academia Sinica.
“The aim is to establish among graduates a clear awareness of friend and foe,” the defense ministry added.
China’s defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment. China has never formally abandoned the possibility of using military force to bring Taiwan under its authority.
The announcement came as Chinese military activity around Taiwan reached new levels. Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, posted on X late Saturday that as of Friday, Taiwan was monitoring a record of more than 110 Chinese military and coast guard ships operating along the first island chain.
“China’s massive maritime mobilization along the 1st Island Chain is a clear sign of its expansionism,” Wu wrote, referring to the stretch of territory running from Japan through Taiwan, the Philippines, and Borneo.
On Saturday, China’s coast guard launched a new patrol off Taiwan’s eastern coastline, drawing a strong rebuke from Taipei. Taiwan’s government maintains that Beijing has no authority over those waters and firmly rejects China’s sovereignty claims over the island.
