Despite warming cross-strait ties, China has not relented on its military buildup and “may attempt a direct assault on Taiwan proper” when it has amassed enough amphibious transport vehicles or when the situation calls for it, according to this year’s Ministry of National Defense report on the military capability of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The report, released on Friday, marked the first time that the ministry had mentioned the possibility of China making a direct assault on the nation in all the past estimates of PLA military capability.
According to the report’s analysis on the combat capability of the PLA and the threat it poses to Taiwan, the PLA as yet lacks sufficient amphibious transport boats in its regular army and does not have the capability to launch a general invasion of Taiwan.
Currently, China still relies on intimidation tactics, running blockades and the threat of artillery or missile bombardment as possible methods of answering hostile cross-strait situations, the report said.
However, the report said that with the continued upgrading of the PLA’s military equipment through arms purchases and research and development, the cross-strait military imbalance would only accelerate.
It added that the PLA’s growing investment in military equipment would also increase the difficulty of any foreign intervention in cross-strait affairs.
With China’s GDP growing nearly 10 percent from 1979 to 2008, and 9.2 percent just in the past year, the report says that China has become the second-largest economy in the world, providing a robust source of funding for national defense.
Since 1989, China’s national defense budget has been growing at a fixed two-digit figure every year and its national defense budge next year is to reach 670 billion yuan (US$105 billion), 67 billion yuan more than last year, equivalent to an increase of 11.2 percent, the report said.
Because China’s research and development, arms sales profits, arms purchases expenditure, national defense industry profits and its budget for the People’s Armed Police (PAP) are excluded from its national defense budget, it is estimated that the amount of unlisted military expenditure is between two and three times the published amount, the report said.
According to statistics in the report, the Chinese Military and its Second Artillery Corp — China’s strategic missile force — has 2.3 million soldiers and China is seeking to increase their mechanization and digitization.
China is also seeking to enhance coordination of its army and air force rapid assault capabilities and special forces combat capability, the report said, adding that China’s navy is also looking to develop a blue-water navy based around aircraft carrier task forces.
On its submarine forces, China’s self-built manned submersible Jiaolong (蛟龍) has also become the only manned submersible capable of reaching a depth exceeding 7,000m, the report said.
The People’s Liberation Army Air Force is also stepping up the modernization of its systems and integrating C4ISR — Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance — in the hopes of obtaining capability to breach and assume air superiority over the first island chain, the report said.
The first island chain is a concept first introduced amid the Cold War. The first island chain starts from the Japanese archipelagos, passes through the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, and ends at the Malacca Strait.
China’s Second Artillery Corp has continued to deploy Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM), and China has also achieved — after the US and Russia — technical capability of automated rendezvous and docking of spacecraft, the report said, adding China’s cyberwarfare forces have also grown under military and governmental support.
China’s military budget is second only to the US, the report said, adding that the speed and scale of China’s increase of its military capability poses a security threat.
China feels the unification of both sides of the Strait under one nation is a historical necessity and though appropriate military contacts and the setting up of confidence and security-building measures to officially end the at-war status between Taiwan and China can be discussed under the “one China” principle, China’s military is still building up to deter “Taiwanese independence,” the report said.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
NO CHANGES: A Japanese spokesperson said that Tokyo remains consistent and open for dialogue, while Beijing has canceled diplomatic engagements A Japanese official blasted China’s claims that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered Japan’s position on a Taiwan crisis as “entirely baseless,” calling for more dialogue to stop ties between Asia’s top economies from spiraling. China vowed to take resolute self-defense against Japan if it “dared to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait” in a letter delivered Friday to the UN. “I’m aware of this letter,” said Maki Kobayashi, a senior Japanese government spokeswoman. “The claim our country has altered its position is entirely baseless,” she said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Chinese Ministry
RSS