The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday confirmed media reports that it plans to purchase coastal defense cruise missile (CDCM) systems from the US, saying that they could be delivered by 2023, should Washington agree to sell.
At a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) asked the ministry to respond to rumors about plans to purchase CDCMs, a truck-mounted system of Harpoon anti-ship missiles made by Boeing Defense, Space & Security for mobile coastal defense.
Deputy Minister of National Defense Chang Che-ping (張哲平) said that the ministry and the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) had reviewed national missile production capabilities through 2025.
Photo: CNA
The review found that the nation is incapable of fielding sufficient missiles to annihilate 50 percent of enemy forces on Taiwanese shores in the event of a Chinese invasion, Chang said.
Taiwan has operated indigenous Hsiung Feng II subsonic anti-ship missile systems since 1988 and its supersonic variant, the Hsiung Feng III, since 2007.
After Tsai asked about annual production of the locally made missile systems, Chang said that he would have to verify the numbers.
Harpoon missiles are similar to the Taiwanese weapons, although the Hsiung Feng II has greater range and a faster cruising speed, CSIST president Art Chang (張忠誠) said, adding that the truck-borne Harpoons allow for comparatively greater mobility than the Hsiung Feng II, which needs to be towed.
Meanwhile, Chang Che-ping said that the ministry was not aware of Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu’s (吳釗燮) comments about potential Chinese People’s Liberation Army actions against Taiwan.
In a video interview with Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum on Tuesday, Wu said that Taiwan and the global community are watching Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong closely.
Asked if it were possible that China might deploy its military against Taiwan or in Hong Kong, Wu said that the Chinese government is trying to fully take over the administration in Hong Kong.
There is “also concern that China might take some military action against Taiwan,” he said. “That’s what I said all along: When the Chinese government is facing crisis domestically, the best way for it is to find a scapegoat outside, and Taiwan can be a very easy scapegoat for China.”
Some reports mistakenly reported Wu as saying that China’s next step would be to take Taiwan by force, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said yesterday.
Chang Che-ping told the committee that the military had contingency plans in place and was closely monitoring the Taiwan Strait, but it would not “make a blind move” based on a single comment.
Military readiness levels remain normal and adjustments would depend on developments in Hong Kong, which the military is closely monitoring, he said.
The MND has contingency plans in place for any Chinese invasion scenario, he said.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying