A top military official said yesterday that Taiwan’s development of medium-range missiles was the proper way to go.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) told a legislative committee meeting he heard Taiwan was developing surface-to-surface ballistic missiles with a range of up to 1,200km and cruise missiles with a range of up to 800km, adding that the military planned to test both at its Jioupeng (九鵬) base in Pingtung County around June.
He said Taiwan’s development of offensive missiles had given rise to international concern.
However, a meeting in the US between Deputy Minister of National Defense Andrew Yang (楊念祖) and US defense officials not only eased US concerns, but also led to an offer of key parts for the missiles, Ting said.
Yang denied the claim, saying: “It is a fabrication. The allegations about my US visit are fabrications. But the doctrine of ‘peace through strength’ and developing surface-to-surface missiles and cruise missiles is a step in the right direction.”
“I am concerned about whether the international community believes Taiwan has violated ballistic missile non-proliferation commitments and will pressure it to cancel its missile programs,” Ting said.
Yang said such pressure has long existed, but the military was making great efforts to strengthen its deterrence capability.
Media reported in October that missiles capable of striking Chinese cities were launched last year from the Jioupeng base with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) attending the exercise.
The missiles tested included the Hsiung-Feng 2E, with a range of about 600km and has not yet entered the military’s inventory, the media reports said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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