The US and France provide many of the missiles of choice for Tai-wan's military, but times are slow-ly turning in favor of Taiwan's indigenous missile program.
The military-run Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology (
Taiwan often complains that its missile development has been encumbered by US pressure. It is true that the CIA stopped Tai-wan's nuclear weapons program and halted production of the surface-to-surface Tien Ma (
The Tien Ma had a range of 1,000km, capable of hitting Shanghai. Taiwan managed to produce an unknown number before production stopped. It is unlikely they are still operational, but rumors persist they are hid-den in the Central Mountain Range.
A brief look at Taiwan's indigenous missile program will ex-plain why China should think twice about attacking and why US interference appears to be in vain.
The first reason is the air-to-air Tien Chien (
The surface-to-air Tien Kung (
TK-3 development began in 1996 as a low-altitude anti-missile defense system expected to be in service by 2005 if development continues. Many fear the acquisition of more US Patriot anti-ballistic missiles will hamper the TK-3's development.
Considered one of Taiwan's most mysterious projects, the surface-to-surface short-range Tien Chi (
Taiwan has also developed the anti-ship Hsiung Feng (
A marked improvement over the HF-1 was the development of an air-launched version for the IDF in 1996.
The next step was the HF-3 with increased range to 200km at Mach 2.0. Improvements include a vertical launch system, which widens the attack angle, and a ramjet engine. The HF-3 is sche-duled to go into production at the end of this year.
The land attack cruise missile, designated Hsiung Feng 2E, based on the HF-2, has a range of 1,000km. Though only in its development stages, the HF-2E will be a major advance for Tai-wan. For the first time, Taiwan will be able to attack targets as far away as Shanghai.
In December 1999, officials from Taiwan hinted at plans for the development of medium-range surface-to-surface missiles. Many analysts saw this as the resurrection of the Tien Ma. Recent press accounts have described a medium-range missile with a range of 1,000 to 2,000km. This would put all of China's major political and economic hubs in range, including Beijing.
Taiwan has two options for the use of missiles. First is a
pre-emptive strike on Chinese forces as they prepare for war. This is the Israeli method and, though it is quite successful, the US is unlikely to support this strategy.
Second is the second-strike option. This would be basically revenge for a Chinese missile attack on Taiwan. China is ex-pected to saturate Taiwan with over 300 tactical ballistic missiles armed with high explosive warheads. This option is the most likely scenario and for political reasons the US would more likely aid Taiwan's defense.
Targets are in two categories: military and civilian. Taiwan could hit China's air bases, ports, troop concentrations and command and control centers or missiles could rain down on unprotected commercial hubs like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
It is easy to discount the true nature of missiles by calling them surface-to-surface, anti-ship and surface-to-surface. The basic fact is these are machines that kill people. Those who doubt that Taiwan would not attack cities after sustaining a violent assault from China forget the true nature of war. War is hell and no hell is worse than fire from the sky.
Wendell Minnick is the Taiwan correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly. (wminnick@hotmail. com)
Father’s Day, as celebrated around the world, has its roots in the early 20th century US. In 1910, the state of Washington marked the world’s first official Father’s Day. Later, in 1972, then-US president Richard Nixon signed a proclamation establishing the third Sunday of June as a national holiday honoring fathers. Many countries have since followed suit, adopting the same date. In Taiwan, the celebration takes a different form — both in timing and meaning. Taiwan’s Father’s Day falls on Aug. 8, a date chosen not for historical events, but for the beauty of language. In Mandarin, “eight eight” is pronounced
Having lived through former British prime minister Boris Johnson’s tumultuous and scandal-ridden administration, the last place I had expected to come face-to-face with “Mr Brexit” was in a hotel ballroom in Taipei. Should I have been so surprised? Over the past few years, Taiwan has unfortunately become the destination of choice for washed-up Western politicians to turn up long after their political careers have ended, making grandiose speeches in exchange for extraordinarily large paychecks far exceeding the annual salary of all but the wealthiest of Taiwan’s business tycoons. Taiwan’s pursuit of bygone politicians with little to no influence in their home
In a recent essay, “How Taiwan Lost Trump,” a former adviser to US President Donald Trump, Christian Whiton, accuses Taiwan of diplomatic incompetence — claiming Taipei failed to reach out to Trump, botched trade negotiations and mishandled its defense posture. Whiton’s narrative overlooks a fundamental truth: Taiwan was never in a position to “win” Trump’s favor in the first place. The playing field was asymmetrical from the outset, dominated by a transactional US president on one side and the looming threat of Chinese coercion on the other. From the outset of his second term, which began in January, Trump reaffirmed his
Despite calls to the contrary from their respective powerful neighbors, Taiwan and Somaliland continue to expand their relationship, endowing it with important new prospects. Fitting into this bigger picture is the historic Coast Guard Cooperation Agreement signed last month. The common goal is to move the already strong bilateral relationship toward operational cooperation, with significant and tangible mutual benefits to be observed. Essentially, the new agreement commits the parties to a course of conduct that is expressed in three fundamental activities: cooperation, intelligence sharing and technology transfer. This reflects the desire — shared by both nations — to achieve strategic results within
RSS