President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony to mark the start of construction of the nation’s first indigenous submarine at state-run shipbuilder CSBC Corp’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung.
“This submarine is an important part of allowing our navy to develop asymmetric warfare and to intimidate and block enemy ships from surrounding Taiwan’s main island,” Tsai said. “With the construction of the submarine to its future commission, we will certainly let the world know our persistence in safeguarding our sovereignty.”
Tsai has made boosting the nation’s indigenous defense capacity a central pillar of her defense policy. She recently relaunched the military aviation industry with the production of new trainer jets and has pushed for the development of more sophisticated systems by utilizing the domestic high-tech industries.
Photo: Wu Huizhong, AP
At the same time, she has gained approval from the US for the purchase of billions of US dollars in weapons, including upgraded F-16 jets, armed drones, rocket systems and Harpoon missiles capable of hitting ships and land targets.
China has stepped up military exercises toward Taiwan this year, flying fighter jets and reconnaissance planes on an almost daily basis toward the nation.
Taiwan turned to the expensive and time-consuming task of building its own submarines after Beijing prevented it from purchasing such craft from abroad through the use of economic and diplomatic threats.
Photo: CNA
Only a handful of countries around the world are capable of manufacturing submarines for modern warfare and Taiwan’s move toward that step has taken years. The Taiwanese submarine’s designs have reportedly drawn on foreign expertise, despite the obstacles thrown up by China.
CSBC was awarded the contract to design and build the subs in 2016, in partnership with arms developer the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology.
Plans call for the building of eight indigenous submarines at an estimated cost of more than US$16 billion, with the first one to be completed by 2025.
The program, known as the Haichang Project (海昌計劃), has already faced criticism over its cost. The design phase itself was estimated to cost about NT$3 billion (US$104 million).
The submarine has been in the design stage for four years, overcoming all sorts of difficulties that could not be revealed to the public, CSBC chairman Cheng Wen-lon (鄭文隆) said yesterday.
The project is staffed by a team of about 200 technicians with an average age of only 34, making them “major assets” to the future of the domestic defense industry, he said.
Tsai conceded that the program was a struggle, but said her government would not be deterred.
“Walking on this path that historically the government has never taken before, there were all kinds of challenges, and we were met with all sorts of doubts, but challenges and doubts won’t defeat us,” Tsai said, standing in front of the workshop where the submarine parts are to be manufactured.
Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發), National Security Adviser Wellington Koo (顧立雄), American Institute in Taiwan Director Brent Christensen, legislators and members of the design team attended the ceremony.
Although Washington has no formal relations with Taipei, it remains Taiwan’s main ally, and US law requires the government to ensure that Taiwan can defend itself.
Weapons sales to Taiwan have increased in quantity and quality in the past few years, especially under US President Donald Trump’s administration.
Facing a potential Chinese foe with overwhelming superiority in missiles, soldiers, ships and planes, Taiwan has struggled to assure its own people, as well as the US, that it is capable of and willing to defend itself.
Along with the world’s largest standing military, numbering about 2 million members, China has the largest navy, with approximately 350 vessels, including two aircraft carriers and about 56 submarines.
It also possesses about 2,000 combat fighters and bombers and 1,250 ground-launched ballistic missiles, considered a key strategic and psychological weapon against Taiwan.
Taiwan’s armed forces are a fraction of that number, with much of its ground force consisting of short-term conscripts, and its fleet numbers only about 86 vessels, about half of them missile boats for coastal patrol.
The navy has just two combat-ready submarines, versions of the Zwaardvis-class subs purchased from the Netherlands in the 1980s in a deal that led to a major diplomatic rift between Bejing and The Hague.
EIGHT-YEAR WINDOW: Avril Haines said that Beijing is closely watching the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although Moscow’s actions have not sped up Beijing’s timeline The threat posed by China to Taiwan until 2030 is “critical,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Tuesday while testifying on worldwide threats at a hearing of the US Senate Committee on Armed Services. “I think it’s fair to say that it’s critical, or acute,” Haines said when asked by US Senator Josh Hawley if she viewed the threat facing Taiwan to be acute from now until 2030. “It’s our view that they [China] are working hard to effectively put themselves into a position in which their military is capable of taking Taiwan over our intervention,” she said, without
NO CONSENSUS YET: Local governments and the CECC have agreed to change the ‘3+4’ self-isolation policy, but are still mulling what to replace it with The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) and local governments have agreed to ease restrictions on close contacts of COVID-19 cases, although the details are still being discussed, the center said yesterday. The discussions follow Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Saturday approving a proposal to shorten the “3+4” policy — three days of home isolation followed by four days of self-disease prevention — for close contacts who have received booster doses. “We did not reach a consensus on how to revise the current restrictions, but we all agreed that the administrative burden must be reduced and the intensity of restrictions must be eased,
OPPOSING CHINESE ‘HOSTILITY’: The bill orders the state secretary to create a plan to regain observer status for Taiwan, saying Taipei is a model contributor to world health US President Joe Biden on Friday signed a bill into law to help Taiwan regain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA), demonstrating Washington’s support for Taiwan’s international participation. Friday was the deadline for Biden to sign the bill (S.812), which directs “the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to regain observer status for Taiwan in the World Health Organization (WHO), and for other purposes.” The 75th WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, is scheduled to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, from Sunday next week to May 28. The bill, introduced by US Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the US Senate
‘DAMOCLES SWORD’: An Italian missionary said the arrest of cardinal Zen is a blow for the church in Hong Kong, China and the world, signaling great danger ahead China yesterday defended the arrest of a 90-year-old Catholic cardinal under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, a move that triggered international outrage and deepened concerns over Beijing’s crackdown on freedoms in the territory. Retired cardinal Joseph Zen (陳日君), one of the most senior Catholic clerics in Asia, was among a group of veteran democracy advocates arrested on Wednesday for “colluding with foreign forces.” Pop singer Denise Ho (何韻詩), veteran barrister Margaret Ng (吳靄儀) and cultural studies academic Hui Po-keung (許寶強) were also arrested, the latter as he attempted to fly to Europe to take up an academic post. Cyd Ho (何秀蘭), a democracy
RSS