Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday.
Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he set out to do.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The resignation also coincides with the handing off of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration to the in-coming administration of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), Vivian Huang said.
Huang Shu-kuang recently filed defamation lawsuits against media personalities demanding NT$2 million (US$61,557) in damages over allegations of corruption during his time overseeing the submarine project.
Under the admiral’s watch, the nation’s first domestically made submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤), or Narwhal, was launched in Kaohsiung in September last year. It is undergoing harbor acceptance tests.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台船) chairman Cheng Wen-lon (鄭文隆) last month said that the nation’s first domestically built submarine would be ready for delivery by the deadline of Nov. 3 next year.
Huang Shu-kuang’s plan was to stagger the production of seven indigenous submarines over three phases: three in the first phase, including the Hai Kun prototype and two others, followed by a final batch with performance upgrades.
The source said that during an internal meeting, Lai asked that production funding for the submarines be provided in full in one budget.
However, with Huang Shu-kuang’s exit, the Ministry of National Defense and Navy Command Headquarters would take over the project, which would change production timelines, the source said.
Navy Commander Tang Hua (唐華) has other opinions regarding the construction of a naval force and improving combat readiness, such as the planned littoral combatant command, they said.
According to the navy, the command would control the Hai Feng Shore Based Anti-ship Missile Group, a unit of speedboats armed with anti-air and surface-to-surface missiles, and maritime surveillance. The command would oversee all defense-related affairs within 24 nautical miles (44.4km) of the coast.
Tang has also commented on submarine production, saying that their manufacture, equipment and functions, and strategic deployment should be based on the combat environment that Taiwan might face.
That could require new thinking on how submarines would be deployed, the source said.
Whether Tang’s opinions on the program would align with National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Wellington Koo’s (顧立雄) vision or would receive the support of Lai, depends on the who is in the Cabinet after the presidential inauguration on May 20, the source said.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
INTENSIFYING THREATS: Beijing’s tactics include massive attacks on the government service network, aircraft and naval vessel incursions and damaging undersea cables China is prepared to interfere in November’s nine-in-one local elections by launching massive attacks on the Taiwanese government’s service network (GSN), a report published by the National Security Bureau showed. The report was submitted to the Legislative Yuan ahead of the bureau’s scheduled briefing at the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The national security team has identified about 13,000 suspicious Internet accounts and 860,000 disputed messages, the bureau said of China’s cognitive warfare against Taiwan. The disputed messages focus on major foreign affairs, national defense and economic issues, which were produced using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed through Chinese
RSS