Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice presidential candidate Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) has been maliciously distorting the facts about a major arms purchase for political reasons, utterly disregarding the safety and security of naval officers and sailors.
He has repeatedly misrepresented the cost of the domestically built Hai Kun (海鯤號) submarine, including factory buildings, machinery, design and other costs, claiming they total NT$52.36 billion (US$1.7 billion), instead of the real construction cost of NT$26.13 billion, which is about NT$8.71 million per tonne.
Jaw is comparing a made-in-Taiwan submarine with a Type 209 submarine purchased from abroad, as if he were unaware that Type 209s, which Germany authorized South Korea to build, are low-cost, no-frills subs with a displacement of little more than 1,000 tonnes.
In addition to South Korea, Germany has authorized shipyards in Turkey and India to build the submarines. Since the 1970s, the manufacturer has won orders from 14 countries, such as Argentina and Brazil, for a total of 62 submarines. Because of the Type 209’s small displacement and its huge economy of scale, each one costs NT$11.11 billion, or NT$9.697 million per tonne.
For countries such as Indonesia and South Korea, they can buy predesigned subs, but Taiwan has had to develop its submarine-building capacity from scratch, so their starting points are different.
Indonesia’s German-built KRI Nanggala Type 209 submarine sank in waters north of Bali in 2021 with all 53 crew members lost. Argentina’s ARA San Juan sank east of Argentina in 2017, also with the loss of everyone on board. There have been so many technical problems with Type 209s that Indonesia decided not to buy any more of them.
The recently launched Taigei-class attack submarine, the JS Raigei, which Jaw has talked about, is the 61st submarine Japan has built since World War II. It was constructed by Mitsubishi and Kawasaki shipyards, which have an advantage in terms of economy of scale. Their investment in factory buildings, equipment, design and more was apportioned long ago, so of course they face lower costs than Taiwan, which is doing all these things for the first time.
As well as getting some of Japan’s pricing wrong, Jaw overlooked the advantage of economies of scale that their submarine-building industry enjoys. His perspective is as absurd as comparing Taiwan’s auto industry with Japan’s Toyota.
As for the air-independent propulsion (AIP) system Jaw praised, it has disadvantages due to its complex structure, such as low power and that it occupies precious space within a submarine, not to mention the high cost of licensing the technology. For all these reasons, even Japan has stopped using AIP and switched to lithium-ion batteries instead.
Cheng Wen-lon (鄭文隆), chairman of shipbuilder CSBC Corp, Taiwan, said that mass-produced Hai Kun-class subs would use lithium-ion batteries, just like Japan.
Jaw deliberately ignores the procurement situations of other countries. For example, Singapore in 2017 commissioned Germany to build its Type 218SG Invincible-class submarines, which have a displacement of 2,200 tonnes and cost NT$27.9 billion each, or NT$12.68 million per tonne.
Sweden’s Type A26 Blekinge-class submarines, the first two of which are under construction, have a displacement of 1,930 tonnes and cost NT$24.12 billion each, or NT$12.5 million per tonne. Spain’s S80 Plus-class submarines, which have a displacement of 3,426 tonnes, cost NT$33.64 billion each, or NT$9.82 million per tonne. Although construction of the S80 started in 2007, it was not until last year that the first submarine went into service. During that time, it was plagued by buoyancy calculation errors, while construction costs soared.
The unit cost of Hai Kun-class submarines is expected to be about NT$26.13 billion. That works out at NT$8.71 million per tonne, which is lower than the new-generation submarines ordered or built by Singapore, Sweden, Spain and South Korea.
Jaw is selectively using the submarines’ displacements, the apportionment of initial expenditures, the relatively little-known AIP technology and the differences in economies of scale to mislead voters into believing that the Hai Kun’s development was a case of malfeasance. In so doing, he ignores the safety and security of navy officers and sailors.
Voters should use their ballots to throw politicians like Jaw into the dustheap of history and ensure that Taiwanese soldiers and sailors have excellent equipment to operate as they fulfill their duty to protect the nation.
Chu-Ke Feng-yun is a military blogger.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Taiwan’s fall would be “a disaster for American interests,” US President Donald Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday last week, as he warned of the “dramatic deterioration of military balance” in the western Pacific. The Republic of China (Taiwan) is indeed facing a unique and acute threat from the Chinese Communist Party’s rising military adventurism, which is why Taiwan has been bolstering its defenses. As US Senator Tom Cotton rightly pointed out in the same hearing, “[although] Taiwan’s defense spending is still inadequate ... [it] has been trending upwards
There is nothing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) could do to stop the tsunami-like mass recall campaign. KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) reportedly said the party does not exclude the option of conditionally proposing a no-confidence vote against the premier, which the party later denied. Did an “actuary” like Chu finally come around to thinking it should get tough with the ruling party? The KMT says the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is leading a minority government with only a 40 percent share of the vote. It has said that the DPP is out of touch with the electorate, has proposed a bloated
In an eloquently written piece published on Sunday, French-Taiwanese education and policy consultant Ninon Godefroy presents an interesting take on the Taiwanese character, as viewed from the eyes of an — at least partial — outsider. She muses that the non-assuming and quiet efficiency of a particularly Taiwanese approach to life and work is behind the global success stories of two very different Taiwanese institutions: Din Tai Fung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). Godefroy said that it is this “humble” approach that endears the nation to visitors, over and above any big ticket attractions that other countries may have
A media report has suggested that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was considering initiating a vote of no confidence in Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) in a bid to “bring down the Cabinet.” The KMT has denied that this topic was ever discussed. Why might such a move have even be considered? It would have been absurd if it had seen the light of day — potentially leading to a mass loss of legislative seats for the KMT even without the recall petitions already under way. Today the second phase of the recall movement is to begin — which has
RSS