A Chinese-language newspaper on Saturday reported that naval officers led a group consisting of military personnel and representatives from the private sector on a visit to Europe last month in an effort to seek help with a navy program to retrofit its two aging Dutch-built submarines.
The group met with representatives of several shipbuilding companies to discuss plans to upgrade the submarines — which have been in service for 27 years — to extend their service life, the United Evening News said, citing unnamed senior military officials.
During the trip, two European companies, including one from the Netherlands, expressed willingness to help Taiwan acquire components that are needed to upgrade the 1980s-era submarines, but that are no longer in production, the report said.
The navy is also seeking assistance from foreign companies with regard to a blueprint for Taiwanese-made diesel-electric submarines, the report said.
Taiwan is pushing for an indigenous submarine program, as it is finding it difficult to acquire subs internationally due to pressure from China.
In a statement in response to the report, the navy did not comment on the submarine retrofit program, but commented on the program to build new submarines.
“The first phase of the project will begin next year with a design contract,” the navy said.
“Taiwan has no experience designing submarines, so it is necessary to visit Europe and the United States to consult with companies that are experienced in building submarines and learn from them to reduce the risks involved in a local submarine design,” it added.
Based on the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and the “six assurances,” Taiwan is mainly seeking to cooperate with the US in moving forward with an indigenous submarine program, the navy said.
The TRA was enacted in 1979 to maintain commercial, cultural and other unofficial relations between Taiwan and the US after Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
The act also requires the US “to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character.”
The “six assurances,” made by the administration of former US president Ronald Reagan, refer to assurances of not agreeing to set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan, not to hold prior consultations with China on arms sales, not to play any mediation role between Taipei and Beijing, not to revise the TRA, not to alter the US position regarding Taiwan’s sovereignty and not to exert pressure on Taiwan to enter into negotiations with China.
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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