[3] Murray used the phrase "porcupine republic" to characterise Taiwan as being able to survive an airborne attack and subsequently resist an amphibious landing of Chinese troops, ideally deterring China by making the costs of such an occupation unacceptable.
[5] Lee's plan called for increased deployment of short-range missiles and a large number of small naval vessels able to hide among fishing boats, among other asymmetric weapons, but also endorsed the continuing acquisition of major assets such as F-16 fighter aircraft, M1 Abrams battle tanks, and a new class of attack submarines.
[6] Admiral Lee, however, felt that following his retirement from government service Taiwan had been slow to implement his Overall Defense Concept and had continued its historical trends of mimicking superpower militaries such as the United States in purchasing weapons platforms like warships and heavy armored vehicles.
[9] Instead of traditional Taiwanese doctrine of air and sea superiority, historically reflected in the operation of fighter aircraft and blue-water naval vessels, the philosophy of access denial would be used by means of mining coastal waters and using large fleets of aerial drones to obstruct Chinese military activity.
[9][8] A series of war games, based on unclassified information and carried out by the US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, role playing an amphibious Chinese assault on Taiwan largely endorsed the porcupine strategy.