Experts Urge Shift in Disaster Prevention to Include Wartime Resilience Policies

As the year-end nine-in-one local elections draw near, political parties and candidates in Taiwan have successively put forward traditional livelihood policy platforms covering transportation, economy, social welfare, and urban planning. However, in the face of increasingly severe and rapidly changing geopolitical challenges, national security and defense preparedness are no longer the exclusive responsibilities of the central government and the Ministry of Defense. In view of the continuous encroachment of new types of gray-zone harassment and hybrid threats, domestic security and civil defense experts publicly called today that local governments must completely break away from the traditional disaster prevention mindset of the past, which was limited to typhoons and earthquakes. Candidates for county magistrates and city mayors should demonstrate a high degree of strategic foresight by formally incorporating "war-related disasters" into the core of local governments' overall disaster prevention preparations, and propose concrete and feasible "war disaster resilience policy platforms" to voters during the campaign, thereby closely integrating local governance with national security.

For a long time, Taiwanese society's perception and expectation of local government disaster relief systems have mostly stayed in the prevention, response, and aftermath of natural disasters. Flood prevention preparations before the arrival of the annual flood season, evacuation drills during earthquakes, and post-typhoon home reconstruction and disaster statistics are all routine administrative tasks for local heads of counties and cities and elected representatives. However, with structural changes in the security situation around the Taiwan Strait, opponents have frequently utilized gray-zone harassment—such as cyberattacks, information warfare, economic pressure, and cognitive warfare—in addition to traditional military threats to comprehensively infiltrate and exhaust Taiwanese society. Experts pointed out that against the backdrop of such hybrid threats, once an emergency occurs, the boundary between the battlefield and the non-battlefield will become extremely blurred. As the front line in contact with the public and maintaining social operations, local governments will face impacts and tests far exceeding the scale of mere natural disasters.

For this reason, experts particularly emphasized that future county magistrates and city mayors must not only know how to pave roads and build bridges, revitalize the economy, or plan urban landscapes, but must also possess leadership skills in crisis management and wartime response. During the election period, while striving for voter approval, candidates should also propose specific platforms on how to enhance cities' "war disaster resilience." These policies should not be merely empty slogans, but must cover multiple substantive dimensions, including a general inspection and functional enhancement of grassroots air-raid shelters, backup planning for wartime emergency medical rescue systems, localized safe reserves of food and daily necessities, contingency plans for critical infrastructure such as water, electricity, and telecommunications when damaged, and mechanisms for effectively mobilizing civil defense forces such as volunteer firefighters, civil defense groups, and non-governmental organizations. Through such concrete policy planning, candidates can prove to voters that they have the ability to safeguard their homes at critical moments.

Looking further ahead, promoting war disaster resilience policies at the local level is not only to cope with potential security crises, but also an important indicator for examining a city's governance maturity. A highly resilient city can demonstrate excellent disaster resistance and response capabilities during normal times, and when facing extreme conditions, it can maintain social order at the fastest speed, reduce public panic, and ensure the normal operation of government agencies. However, to achieve such a goal, the horizontal and vertical connections between the central and local governments must be closer. In the past, local governments often played a passive, cooperating role in defense and civil defense affairs, lacking the incentives for independent planning and resource investment. Experts called on political party candidates to take advantage of this election to incorporate war disaster resilience into their campaign main axes. This would not only guide the general public to face the current national security situation squarely, but also prompt the central government and local counties and cities to jointly establish a sounder, well-divided all-society defense resilience network.

In conclusion, elections are not only a demonstration of democratic values, but also a choice of the collective will of society and future governance directions. Facing complex and changing regional security situations and new types of threats, Taiwan's democratic elections must demonstrate a maturity that keeps pace with the times. If candidates for county magistrates and city mayors can break away from the quagmire of traditional political bickering, honestly face national security challenges, and specifically map out blueprints for local disaster prevention and war disaster resilience in their platforms, it will not only help enhance Taiwan's overall social defense capabilities, but also create a new pattern for local governance that balances people's livelihood and security, ensuring that Taiwan can demonstrate strong vitality and self-defense will when facing any challenges.