Military tensions with China are at their worst in more than 40 years, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said yesterday, days after record numbers of incursions by Chinese aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
Tensions have hit a new high between Taipei and Beijing, and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft have repeatedly flown through Taiwan’s ADIZ.
Over a four-day period beginning on Friday, Taiwan said that nearly 150 PLA military aircraft entered its ADIZ, part of a pattern of what Taipei calls Beijing’s continued harassment of the nation.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
At a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗) asked Chiu about current military tensions with China and whether he agreed with a May report in The Economist, which said that Taiwan is the “most dangerous place on Earth.”
That is just the opinion of the foreign media, but the situation is the “most serious” in the more than 40 years since he joined the military, Chiu said.
“For me as a military man, the urgency is right in front of me,” he said.
China has the ability to invade Taiwan and its military would have the capability of mounting a “full scale” invasion by 2025, Chiu added.
“By 2025, China will bring the cost and attrition to its lowest. It has the capacity now, but it will not start a war easily, having to take many other things into consideration,” he told the committee which, with the legislature’s Finance Committee, is reviewing a special military purchase act of NT$240 billion (US$8.6 billion) for indigenous weapons, including missiles and warships.
In response to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin’s (林楚茵) queries about the guiding principle behind Taiwan’s military reactions, Chiu said: “Our military holds to the principle that we will not fire the first shot.”
Taiwanese pilots are under great duress because of this policy, he said, adding that he has visited air bases multiple times to encourage the pilots and told officers that they need to interact more with their troops.
A source has said on condition of anonymity that the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee has arranged two classified visits for its members: one to the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology to tour its manufacturing facility and another to the Hai Feng Brigade to inspect missiles.
The military had placed the Hsiung Sheng missile on public display and it was the first time that the legislators had seen it, the source said.
The lawmakers’ confidence in Taiwan’s defensive capabilities grew after learning that the Hsiung Feng IIE (Brave Wind) has a range of 600km, while the Hsiung Sheng cruise missile has a range of more than 1,000km, the source added.
The purchase act is likely to include the purchase of more than 100 Hsiung Sheng missiles, which would greatly augment Taiwan’s ability to deter China, the source said.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
RSS