Taiwan has has successfully test-fired the prototype of an anti-ship missile which is being developed to boost Taipei's sea defences against China, a Chinese-language newspaper said yesterday.
"The military's Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has successfully test-fired -- several times -- Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile," the China Times daily quoted an unnamed military source as saying.
The tests began early last month at the Chiu Peng Missile Base in Pingtung County, southeast Taiwan. The missile was fired in the direction of the Pacific Ocean, and it corrected its course several times before hitting the target, the daily said.
According to the paper, the Chungshan institute began developing Hsiung Feng III 10 years ago and has been test-firing it in the last two years but has met difficulties. The breakthrough came last month and the test fire succeeded early last month.
Taiwan has kept developing Hsiung Feng III a secret because it is superior to the Sunburn supersonic anti-ship missiles China has acquired from Russia for use on its two Sovremenny destroyers, and also because Taiwan does not want to draw attention to Chungshan institute's developing Hsiung Feng IIE, which is rumoured to be a cruise missile.
Hsiung Feng III is the third generation of Taiwan's self-built Hsiung Feng-series anti-ship missiles.
Military analysts say the development of Hsiung Feng III can boost Taiwan's sea defenses against China.
"With upgraded speed and precision, Hsiung Feng III can accurately hit Chinese warships in the Taiwan Strait," Cheng Chih-wen, editor in chief of the Defence International monthly magazine.
"I think its range is between 150km 200km, longer than Hsiung Feng II's range of 120 kilometres, but the key point is its supersonic attack capability," he added.
Cheng said China has also been developing supersonic missiles but has not succeeded yet.
Taiwan is separated from China by the 120km-wide Taiwan Strait.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS