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.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
RSS