Despite efforts by the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to lower tensions in the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese military continues to build up its missile threat against its neighbor, according to recent reports of modernization efforts at missile bases in China’s Fujian Province.
Reports late last month said recent US spy satellite imagery had uncovered what appeared to be evidence of new missile launch pads in Fujian Province, including in Xianyou in the province’s southeast, directly -opposite Taiwan.
However, according to the latest issue of British defense magazine Jane’s Defence Weekly, the imagery was likely evidence of modernization of an old People’s Liberation Army (PLA) missile brigade under direct control of the Nanjing Military Region rather than new missile bases.
Military analysts suspect that command of the ground support missile brigade at Xianyou, which became operational in 1993, was recently shifted to the Second Artillery Corps, which oversees China’s conventional and nuclear ballistic missile forces.
Prior to falling under control of the Second Artillery’s 52 Base, the missile brigade around Xianyou comprised about 100 Dong Feng 11 (DF-11) short-range (300km) ballistic missiles (SRBM).
As part of ongoing modernization efforts, those missiles are now believed to be in the process of being replaced by the more modern 600km-range DF-11As, Jane’s said.
The DF-11 is a solid-fuel, road-mobile SRBM carried on transporter erector launcher (TEL) vehicles.
In earlier reports, Kanwa Asia Defense Review claimed that along with new equipment, the base may also have been given a new mission, Jane’s reported.
The Second Artillery’s main ballistic missile base in Fujian, 817 Brigade, is located in Yongan City. Six brigades of DF-11As are believed to be based there.
The brigades at Xianyou and Yongan are part of the PLA’s ballistic missile force, estimated at 1,500 missiles, targeted at Taiwan, an arsenal that includes medium-range DF-15s and DF-16s, as well as hundreds of cruise missiles.
Commenting on the imagery, Kanwa Asia Defense Review claimed that two of the new launch pads were constructed in northern Fujian, with one located 100km northwest of Fuzhou, less than 260km from Taipei.
At least two launch pads have also been detected on mountaintops in the Huashuang area, about 270km from Taipei. Yet another launch pad has been spotted 209km from Taipei, which the magazine said was also built prior to 2007 and is now under the control of No. 820 artillery brigade based in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province.
However, Gary Li, an intelligence analyst at UK-based Exclusive Analysis, said that without closer analysis of the imagery, it was impossible to rule out the possibility that some of the so-called launch pads seen around Fujian were fake TELs — which the PLA has reportedly been fielding in increasing numbers to deceive satellites — or long-range multiple rocket launchers such as the PHL-03s used by the army.
Commenting on the reports, local military experts said China had also strengthened its ability to protect its ballistic missiles with air-defense systems.
Ministry of National Defense spokesman David Lo (羅紹和) said the ministry has stepped up its monitoring of China’s military deployments and movements and would work out response strategies to protect national security.
The reports come amid news that three Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) surface-to-air missile defense units acquired by Taiwan in the late 1990s were recently returned to Taiwan after being upgraded to PAC-3 configuration in the US.
Additional reporting by CNA
EIGHT-YEAR WINDOW: Avril Haines said that Beijing is closely watching the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although Moscow’s actions have not sped up Beijing’s timeline The threat posed by China to Taiwan until 2030 is “critical,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Tuesday while testifying on worldwide threats at a hearing of the US Senate Committee on Armed Services. “I think it’s fair to say that it’s critical, or acute,” Haines said when asked by US Senator Josh Hawley if she viewed the threat facing Taiwan to be acute from now until 2030. “It’s our view that they [China] are working hard to effectively put themselves into a position in which their military is capable of taking Taiwan over our intervention,” she said, without
‘DAMOCLES SWORD’: An Italian missionary said the arrest of cardinal Zen is a blow for the church in Hong Kong, China and the world, signaling great danger ahead China yesterday defended the arrest of a 90-year-old Catholic cardinal under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, a move that triggered international outrage and deepened concerns over Beijing’s crackdown on freedoms in the territory. Retired cardinal Joseph Zen (陳日君), one of the most senior Catholic clerics in Asia, was among a group of veteran democracy advocates arrested on Wednesday for “colluding with foreign forces.” Pop singer Denise Ho (何韻詩), veteran barrister Margaret Ng (吳靄儀) and cultural studies academic Hui Po-keung (許寶強) were also arrested, the latter as he attempted to fly to Europe to take up an academic post. Cyd Ho (何秀蘭), a democracy
PEACE AND STABILITY: American Institute in Taiwan spokesman Ed Dunn called Taiwan a leading democracy and a critical economic and security partner of the US Changes to the US Department of State’s fact sheet on Taiwan indicate a significant warming in relations between the two nations, an academic said yesterday, as Beijing denounced them as “political manipulation.” The department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs on Thursday updated its online fact sheet on Taiwan-US relations, removing statements saying that Washington acknowledged Beijing’s “one China” position and did not support Taiwanese independence. A previous version of the document opened with the statement: “The United States and Taiwan enjoy a robust unofficial relationship” and said the US acknowledged “the Chinese position that there is but one China and
OPPOSING CHINESE ‘HOSTILITY’: The bill orders the state secretary to create a plan to regain observer status for Taiwan, saying Taipei is a model contributor to world health US President Joe Biden on Friday signed a bill into law to help Taiwan regain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA), demonstrating Washington’s support for Taiwan’s international participation. Friday was the deadline for Biden to sign the bill (S.812), which directs “the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to regain observer status for Taiwan in the World Health Organization (WHO), and for other purposes.” The 75th WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, is scheduled to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, from Sunday next week to May 28. The bill, introduced by US Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the US Senate