China's military advantage in the Taiwan Strait continues to grow, but the Legislative Yuan's decision last year to boost defense spending will help right the balance, the Pentagon said in its annual review of China's military released in Washington on Monday.
China has been able to improve its overall military capabilities and the capabilities of its forces facing Taiwan, and continues to build up its array of short-range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan, the report said.
But the document disagrees sharply with President Chen Shui-bian (
US military analysts now say that China has deployed between 990 and 1,070 missiles against Taiwan, up from the 875 to 975 it estimated in last year's report. China is increasing the number of missiles by more than 100 a year, it says.
But that is still far below the more than 1,300 missiles that Chen has cited in statements over the past year.
CONCERNS
In a press briefing accompanying the release of the report, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia, David Sedney, said the missile deployment is "clearly an issue that we're very concerned about and which we have raised very strongly and consistently at high levels over the years with the Chinese."
But he had praise for Taiwan for increasing defense spending in response to the growing Chinese threat.
"We were very pleased this year that Taiwan passed ... in December a 2008 budget which increased rather substantially the amount of money and the percentage of its resources that Taiwan will be spending in its own defense. And we think that's very important," Sedney said.
PROCUREMENT
He said a near-record number of planned US arms sales to Taiwan were announced last year.
Those included 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft and related items worth US$1.96 billion, state-of-the-art upgrades to Taiwan's Patriot 2 anti-missile batteries worth US$939 million, and several hundred AMRAAM and Maverick missiles for use with Taiwan's F-16 fighters worth US$421 million.
The report says the legislative action, the US arms sales commitments and recent steps the Taiwan military has taken to improve its operational capabilities "have, on the whole, reinforced Taiwan's natural defensive advantages in the face of Beijing's continuing military buildup."
"We've made a number of notifications ... about the weapons systems Taiwan will be acquiring and we think those will help address the issues of the balance in the Taiwan Straits [sic]," Sedney said.
"But that certainly won't address it completely because China continues both its modernization and its deployment of forces based on Taiwan ... and we continue to not just watch it carefully but to take all appropriate measures that we have to do to be prepared for any eventuality," he said.
Asked about figures in this and last year's reports that show an actual decline in the number of Chinese ground forces deployed in the Taiwan Strait area, as well as a sharp decline in the number of bombers and fighters within range of Taiwan, Sedney downplayed the changes.
"Those are things that can change very rapidly," he said. "The Chinese have a lot of resources throughout the country which they can deploy in the Taiwan Strait area and which they practice deploying on a regular basis."
"So if you're looking at the Taiwan Strait, we wouldn't look just at any one point in time. You know, we do look at what's based there. But it's important to remember there's even a larger number of assets there," he said.
David Helvey, the director of China, Taiwan and Mongolia affairs for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, who also addressed the briefing, added to Sedney's comments.
"As China's military forces improve ... you see the retirement of older platforms and airframes. So in some cases, you may see a decrement in total numbers, but you have a higher percentage of much more capable platforms and systems," Helvey said.
In the report, the Pentagon also noted favorably the development of the Hsiung Feng IIE cruise missile, announced during the Han Kuang exercise in April, with a 1,000km range that enables it to reach Hong Kong and Shanghai.
RESPONSE
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday urged the international community to pay close attention to China's rapid military buildup, saying the Taiwan Strait has become one of the major flashpoints in the world because of Beijing's military rise.
In its official statement, MAC said the Chinese arms expansion has not only tipped the balance of power in the East Asia, but also threatened the stability in the Pacific region.
Furthermore, Taiwan has reasons to believe that Beijing still views Taiwan as its greatest enemy. Such animosity is evident in the number of missiles, increasing at a rate of 100 missiles per year, pointed at the country.
MAC called on the international community to raise suspicion about the true intention behind Beijing's military buildup.
Additional reporting by Jenny W. Hsu
The domestically designed Teng Yun 2 drone passed development milestones over the weekend, flying for more than 10 hours straight and circling Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in the longest flight of an indigenous uncrewed combat aerial vehicle. Developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the Teng Yun 2, or “Cloud Rider” (騰雲二型), recorded its longest flight yet over the weekend, after a three-hour test flight last month, followed by five and seven-hour stretches in the air. The Teng Yun 2 No. 1812 departed from Chiashan Air Base in Hualien County at 6:46pm on Saturday and flew on a
A slew of new measures are to take effect on Friday, including nationwide bring-your-own-cup discounts. The new rule requires chain beverage shops to offer discounts of at least NT$5 (US$0.17) to customers who bring their own cups, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said. The policy would apply to more than 50,000 chain retail locations, including beverage shops, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. It aims to cut down on waste from single-use plastic cups, more than 2.2 billion of which were used in Taiwan in 2020, the agency said. For convenience, the EPA said it has asked retailers to display signs stating how
TIMING: 'The CHIPS Act funding is crucial for us. In other words, if the act’s passage is delayed for too long, we will certainly need to adjust,’ chairwoman Doris Hsu said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) plans to start construction on a US$5 billion wafer fabrication facility in Texas in November, after passage of the US$52 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. The fab would be the largest of its kind in the US and one of the largest in the world, with a monthly capacity of 1.2 million wafers, GlobalWafers said, adding that the investment would be the first new fab in the US in more than 20 years and critical to closing a semiconductor supply chain gap. The world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier said the project, which
COUNTERING CHINA: ‘When democracies demonstrate what we can do ... I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,’ US President Joe Biden said US President Joe Biden rebooted his effort to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) after an earlier campaign faltered, enlisting the support of G7 leaders at their summit in Germany. The Build Back Better World initiative, named after Biden’s domestic spending and climate agenda, struggled to get off the ground because not enough G7 partners contributed financially when it was unveiled a year ago, people familiar with its lack of progress said. “When democracies demonstrate what we can do — all that we have to offer — I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,” Biden said during
RSS