The number of ballistic and cruise missiles aimed by China’s Second Artillery Corps at Taiwan has grown from 1,400 last year to more than 1,600 this year, which poses a serious threat to the nation, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in its China Military Power Report 2012.
This year’s annual report, which has been delivered to the legislature, emphasizes China’s growing missile threat.
It said the People’s Liberation Army had deployed a small number of advanced Dong Feng-16 (DF-16) missiles to complement the arsenal of DF-11 and DF-15 short-range missiles that has threatened Taiwan over the years. National Security Bureau Director Tsai Der-sheng (蔡得勝) told the legislature in March last year that the Chinese military had completed developing the new DF-16. Photographs in April suggested the deployment of the medium-range missile had begun. Military analysts also believe that the DF-16 may be mobile, which would make interception more difficult.
To increase area-denial, the Second Artillery has deployed DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles, the report said, adding that DF-31A ICBMs armed with nuclear warheads and capable of reaching the US and most European countries were deployed to deter other countries from interfering in any conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
The number of ballistic and cruise missiles aimed at Taiwan has increased by about 200 from last year and is now estimated at 1,600, it said, adding that an increasing number were equipped with advanced GPS systems allowing for precision attacks against Taiwan.
Facing an increased threat from Chinese missiles, plans are being made to modernize Taiwan’s air defense systems, the report said.
According to the military budget proposal for next year, the ministry has earmarked funds to modernize and expand its surface-to-air missiles (SAM), with the ministry planning to procure rocket boosters from the US to place on the AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile. It also has plans to acquire AGM-65G Maverick missiles, AGM-84L Harpoon missiles and Magic II missiles, as well as the domestically produced Tien Chien II missiles.
The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology is also to be called upon to modernize parts of the indigenous Tien Kung “Sky Bow” I and II air-defense systems.
The military also plans to send aging MIM23 Hawk medium-range SAMs to the US for efficiency tests, the budget proposal shows.
In addition, the military plans to procure rocket motors from the US to equip its Standard Missile 1, it says.
Although relations across the Taiwan Strait have improved, China has not slowed its military buildup, which is mainly intended to deter the Taiwanese independence movement, the report says.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS