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.
In the first year of his second term, US President Donald Trump continued to shake the foundations of the liberal international order to realize his “America first” policy. However, amid an atmosphere of uncertainty and unpredictability, the Trump administration brought some clarity to its policy toward Taiwan. As expected, bilateral trade emerged as a major priority for the new Trump administration. To secure a favorable trade deal with Taiwan, it adopted a two-pronged strategy: First, Trump accused Taiwan of “stealing” chip business from the US, indicating that if Taipei did not address Washington’s concerns in this strategic sector, it could revisit its Taiwan
The stocks of rare earth companies soared on Monday following news that the Trump administration had taken a 10 percent stake in Oklahoma mining and magnet company USA Rare Earth Inc. Such is the visible benefit enjoyed by the growing number of firms that count Uncle Sam as a shareholder. Yet recent events surrounding perhaps what is the most well-known state-picked champion, Intel Corp, exposed a major unseen cost of the federal government’s unprecedented intervention in private business: the distortion of capital markets that have underpinned US growth and innovation since its founding. Prior to Intel’s Jan. 22 call with analysts
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) challenges and ignores the international rules-based order by violating Taiwanese airspace using a high-flying drone: This incident is a multi-layered challenge, including a lawfare challenge against the First Island Chain, the US, and the world. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) defines lawfare as “controlling the enemy through the law or using the law to constrain the enemy.” Chen Yu-cheng (陳育正), an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies, at Taiwan’s Fu Hsing Kang College (National Defense University), argues the PLA uses lawfare to create a precedent and a new de facto legal
International debate on Taiwan is obsessed with “invasion countdowns,” framing the cross-strait crisis as a matter of military timetables and political opportunity. However, the seismic political tremors surrounding Central Military Commission (CMC) vice chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) suggested that Washington and Taipei are watching the wrong clock. Beijing is constrained not by a lack of capability, but by an acute fear of regime-threatening military failure. The reported sidelining of Zhang — a combat veteran in a largely unbloodied force and long-time loyalist of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — followed a year of purges within the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
RSS