In response to the increasing military threat posed by China, the Ministry of National Defense years ago began funding research to develop indigenous ballistic and cruise missile capabilities.
During a joint meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee and Finance Committee on Wednesday last week, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) for the first time publicly acknowledged the existence of the Yun Feng (雲峰, Cloud Peak) medium-range surface-to-surface missile program.
However, when asked if the missile had a range of 1,200km, he declined to provide further details in a public forum, and said he would let the committee members know in private.
Chiu was also asked whether the missile was still in development, to which he said that the military is “working on it.”
Due to unique circumstances in the Taiwan Strait, preparation and deployment of the Yun Feng missile should take into account three conditions:
First, as medium-range missiles are sensitive equipment, they would likely be classified as a strategic deterrent weapon by medium and small nations. It is therefore essential that the missile’s delivery vehicles are highly mobile to prevent the enemy from destroying them in a first strike.
If conflict with China were to occur, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army could be expected to attack Taiwan at a relatively high tempo. Consequently, Taiwan’s medium-range missiles and other special missiles should be equipped with mobile deployment capabilities to ensure that the nation can launch an effective counterstrike.
Second, although medium-range and cruise missiles are categorized as “strategic units” by the military, as Taiwan would not strike first, the missiles would only have second-strike capability.
If Taiwan were to fire its missiles first during the initial stages of a conflict with China, it would likely make it much more difficult to garner support and assistance from allies and sympathetic nations.
Third, the deployment of Yun Feng medium-range missiles would likely be tasked to the army, which could deploy them in fixed underground positions. Alternatively, it might embed the majority of the missiles within mobile units.
The military could also deploy the missiles on cargo ships during peacetime. If war were to break out, the ships could leave harbor and be strategically deployed at sea, increasing the flexibility of Taiwan’s missile deployment.
If fired at sea, this would make it much more difficult for China to obtain intelligence on a missile’s location before it was launched, thereby significantly augmenting Taiwan’s asymmetric combat capability.
Missiles are considered offensive and defensive weapons. If the Yun Feng medium-range missile program is successful, producing several hundred of them should not be a problem, significantly increasing the nation’s attack and defense capabilities.
The optimum solution would be to integrate them into ground-based mobile units and, during a war, at sea.
This would increase the defensive cost for China, while simultaneously reducing Taiwan’s defense burden.
Ray Song is a graduate of National Chung Cheng University’s Institute of Strategic and International Affairs.
Translated by Edward Jones
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS