In case mainland China attacks, Taiwan looks to boost medical facilities to better treat mass casualties in wartime

Escalating cross-strait tensions have prompted Taiwan to plan new medical facilities to better treat mass casualties during a conflict with mainland China.

The island’s defence ministry proposes to spend NT$986.3 million (US$31 million) on facilities to support the military’s medical capacity to preserve combat forces, according to the budget for the 2024 financial year sent to the legislature for review in the upcoming session that begins on September 11.

Under the plan for the next four years, the ministry’s medical affairs bureau will acquire 221 types of facilities, including mobile X-ray machines, C-arms widely used during orthopaedic, urology and other emergency procedures and plasma storage freezers for keeping blood at minus 40 degrees Celsius.

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Some NT$542 million will pay for 47 kinds of facilities – including ultrasonic imaging scanners and those for hybrid operation rooms – in the next two years, according to the plan.

The bureau will spend NT$187 million to acquire positron emission tomography machines that measure physiological function by assessing blood flow, metabolism, neurotransmitters and radiolabelled drugs.

The tomography machines would be used in the event of radioactive disasters, including those caused by a nuclear bomb explosion or a power plant leak, according to the ministry.

It said that in the face of growing threats from the mainland’s People’s Liberation Army of an attack on Taiwan, the bureau must prepare to switch its hospitals and civilian medical centres into wartime hospitals to swiftly and effectively treat anyone injured in a potential cross-strait conflict.

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The ministry has warned that among the PLA’s options to assault Taiwan, it could attack the island’s nuclear power plants.

Taiwan has three nuclear power plants. The two plants in northern Taiwan are in the process of being decommissioned, leaving the one in Hengchun in southern Taiwan still operating. A fourth, also in northern Taiwan and 90 per cent completed, was scrapped because of opposition by the government of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

Beijing views Taiwan as its territory that must be brought under its control, by force if necessary. Since August last year, the PLA has intensified its military operations around Taiwan to ramp up pressure on the island after then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi defied repeated warnings by visiting Taipei that month – a trip Beijing saw as a violation of its sovereignty.

The United States, like most countries, does not recognise Taiwan as an independent state but it is opposed to any unilateral change to the cross-strait status quo.

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In its report to the legislature, the ministry also said pursuing unification with Taiwan was likely to be high on the agenda during mainland Chinese President Xi Jinping’s third five-year term that began earlier this year.

Ho Chih-wei, a legislator of the ruling, independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, said there was a need for Taiwan to increase its medical facilities to deal with wartime emergencies and casualties.

“High mobility in [military] operations, including those involving medical treatments, are necessary in the event of a contingency,” Ho said, adding they were the “root” of Taiwan in its asymmetric warfare against the PLA.

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He said international cooperation was also important to help improve Taiwan’s ability to deal with wartime medical situations.

In a statement on Monday, the ministry stressed the new installation was to replace dated facilities and enhance the medical capacity of the military – a practice in line with the international trend.

South China Morning Post