While the harbor acceptance test (HAT) for Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine prototype the Hai Kun (海鯤) is nearly complete and the vessel is expected to be delivered next year as scheduled, opposition lawmakers have threatened to cut the submarine budget next year, which would delay domestic submarine production for at least two years.
To develop a domestic shipbuilding capability and industry, Taiwan proposed an Indigenous Submarine Program with plans to develop eight indigenous submarines. The Hai Kun was launched in September last year, then started its HAT, which is to be followed by a six-month sea acceptance test scheduled to begin in April next year before the vessel is delivered to the navy in November next year.
Another seven submarines are due to be built in a “two-three-two” production schedule from next year to 2038 at an estimated cost of NT$284 billion (US$8.73 billion). For the next fiscal year, the Ministry of National Defense has budgeted about NT$2 billion for the development of the next two submarines.
Following rumors that the Hai Kun had failed to meet more than 70 HAT metrics, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said that she would propose slashing next year’s budget by NT$1.8 billion, while fellow KMT legislators Huang Ren (黃仁) and Ma Wen-jun (馬文君) have threatened to block the entire budget.
The navy, as the purchaser of the submarines built by CSBC Corp, Taiwan on Monday said that the Hai Kun had completed about 85 percent of the HAT and is expected to be delivered in November next year as scheduled, adding that the tests discovered about a dozen shortcomings that need to be fixed, not 70 items as reported.
Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said that if the budget is not allocated this year, the entire schedule for the subsequent submarines would be delayed, costs would very likely rise over time, while the contractors’ confidence in and commitment to the project would likely be damaged.
Compared with the total budget, the NT$2 billion submarine budget listed for the next fiscal year might only be a small portion, but it is definitely a demonstration of Taiwan’s determination to improve its self-defense.
The submarine program, which would strengthen the navy’s capabilities in undersea surveillance and combat, is a vital deterrence against China attempting a maritime invasion of the nation, which it has repeatedly rehearsed, as well as sending ships to test Taiwan’s coastal defenses. The program is also a response to intensifying regional tensions and territorial disputes caused by China in the Taiwan Strait, as well as the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.
Legislators have a duty to oversee the budget and monitor the quality of the submarines being produced by the program, but as more military experts suggest a growing possibility that China would attempt to deploy a maritime blockade of Taiwan, cutting the budget to strengthen the nation’s submarine fleet would scupper the military’s ability to safeguard the nation.
The Comedy Club on Fuxing N Road in Taipei was vandalized with paint bombs mixed with feces on May 29, allegedly because one of its performers had satirized Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). The incident has triggered concerns about the growing threat from China’s cross-border repression within Taiwan. On the day of the attack, a comedian surnamed Huang (黃), who is known for mocking Xi, was the headline performer. The Comedy Club founder said the assault was obviously politically motivated. China, which Freedom House said “conducts the most sophisticated, extensive and far-reaching campaign of transnational repression in the world,” has
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) at a press conference last week repeated the same, tired line, claiming that Taiwan’s future should be “decided jointly by the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people, including Taiwan compatriots.” The statement is absurd. Virtually every word is incorrect, with some parts mistaken to an astonishing degree. First, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never included Taiwan. When the Republic of China’s (ROC) original five-colored flag was established in 1912, Taiwan was still under Japanese rule. When the PRC was founded in 1949, Taiwan was under the control of president Chiang
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) on Tuesday returned from her visit to the US, where she had met with several US senators and representatives, think tanks, and overseas Taiwanese and Chinese communities, espousing her vision of promoting cross-strait dialogue as a way to evade war. On Monday last week, she sat down with US academic Orville Schell and Asia Society Policy Institute distinguished fellow Daniel Russel. Russel is a seasoned diplomat who has served in positions related to East Asian and Indo-Pacific affairs. At the conclusion of the discussion, Russel employed his considerable diplomatic experience and knowledge
In the aftermath of China’s expulsion of the New York Times correspondent Vivian Wang (王月眉), Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian (林劍) has publicly and explicitly articulated Beijing’s core thinking on the Taiwan issue. Chinese authorities accused the newspaper of promoting what they called “Taiwan independence fallacies,” and said that its description of Taiwan as a country amounts to a challenge to the “one China” principle. The significance of the incident goes beyond the reporting dispute and has given the international community a window into the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) attitude toward Taiwan. Lin, in a statement, said
RSS