Amid speculation that China has completed a prototype of a stealth aircraft that experts say could rival the US Air Force’s F-22 — the world’s only fully operational next-generation stealth fighter aircraft — national defense officials yesterday said they doubted the Chinese aircraft would be operational any time soon and raised doubts as to the veracity of information made public about the plane.
Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴) said photographs, purportedly of the Chengdu J-20 aircraft, had generated speculation that China had entered the testing phase for the fifth-generation aircraft.
However, the authenticity of the photographs was “questionable,” Shen told the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee.
Photographs published online and Chinese military sources cited by Japanese media last week seemed to indicate that a prototype version of the J-20 fighter had been completed, with taxi tests carried out last week in southwestern China.
The news came days before a visit to Beijing by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who will seek to repair military ties cut off a year ago by China when Washington sold billions of dollars worth of arms to Taiwan, as well as a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) to Washington.
The J-20 would come equipped with potent missiles and could reach the US territory of Guam with aerial refueling, although it would take between 10 and 15 more years to develop technology on a par with that of the F-22, reports said.
Defense industry publication Aviation Week said the J-20 was larger than expected — suggesting a long-range capability and the ability to carry heavy weapon loads.
Quoting Chinese military sources, the Asahi Shimbun reported that the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) planned to begin test flights of the J-20 as soon as this month, with plans to deploy the jet as early as 2017.
The J-20 “will become fully competitive with the F-22, in capability and perhaps in numbers, around the end of this decade,” Rick Fisher, an expert on the Chinese military at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a US think tank, told Agence France-Press.
Dennis Blasko, a specialist on the PLA, said the timeline for development of the aircraft was “probably considerably longer than what most outside observers would estimate.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) also played down the speculation about the fighter jet.
Lin said the emblem on the tail fin of the aircraft was not consistent with that of the PLAAF and that the emblems on the front wings were of a design no longer used.
Shen, who said Lin’s observations were “basically correct,” added that Russian analysis showed that China still lagged technologically in terms of manufacturing engines, radar, composite materials, instrumentation and electrical systems.
Asked by Lin if he believed China was incapable at this point of producing the J-20, Shen said he believed that was the case.
Western military experts have also expressed doubts over the J-20.
“I have yet to see proof of a test flight and testing for a prototype can take quite some time before production begins,” Blasko said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
RSS