Washington is said to be “backing away” from helping Taiwan to buy or build full-scale diesel-electric submarines.
Instead, an unnamed US official has told the conservative Washington Times newspaper that the White House has agreed to assist the nation in developing mini coastal submarines as a “halfway measure.”
According to the newspaper, the Pentagon is opposed to the nation’s submarine plans because of fears that they would upset China, saying it fears that if the US supplies technology or weapons for full-size subs, Beijing might react by disrupting the high-priority military exchange program between the US and China.
“The Chinese military cut ties to the Pentagon several times in recent years to protest US arms sales to Taiwan,” a report said.
Beijing agreed to resume exchanges only if US President Barack Obama’s administration adopted “new-type” relations that include gradually ending arms sales, the report said.
There had been signals over the past few weeks that Washington would help Taiwan with its indigenous submarine program.
Thus, if the Washington Times report is accurate, it would be a bitter disappointment to Taipei and Obama would face heavy criticism from the US Congress, where there is considerable support for Taiwan’s submarine plans.
“Critics of the small-sub plan say the Taiwanese need larger submarines, as well as mini-subs, as a key asymmetric warfare weapon to deter the Chinese — something small submarines alone are unlikely to do,” the report said.
“Despite its 30-year quest, no one has the guts to sell submarines to Taiwan,” International Assessment and Strategy Center fellow Rick Fisher is quoted as saying. “Now Taiwan has taken the momentous step of starting their own program, it would be a crushing blow if the UD [US Department of Defense] did not support it.”
Fisher believes that full-size subs could hold off a Chinese invasion.
Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Pool said: “The US has received Taiwan’s requests for diesel submarines. These requests remain under interagency review.”
Taiwan wants to build at least four 1,500-tonne subs in its own shipyards, but is unlikely to be able to do so without US technical assistance. The Taipei Times was unable to get any further reaction from the Pentagon or the White House.
In related news, the Wall Street Journal reported that a Chinese attack submarine has made its first known foray into the Indian Ocean.
According to the US Naval Institute, the Chinese navy has 77 surface warships, more than 60 submarines, 55 amphibious ships and about 85 missile-equipped small ships.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching