US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China.
US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals.
Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and US Space Force chief of space operations General Chance Saltzman, yesterday attended a US Senate subcommittee hearing to discuss next year’s defense budget.
Photo: AP
Meink and Saltzman said the PLA is advancing its ballistic capabilities.
China has more than 900 short-range missiles capable of reaching Taiwan and 400 land-based missiles that can reach the first island chain, they said.
It also has 1,300 medium-range ballistic missiles that can strike the second island chain, 500 intermediate-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting parts of Alaska and Australia, and more than 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles that could deliver nuclear weapons globally, they said.
Photo: AP
Saltzman said he is most concerned about China’s “kill web,” which enables the PLA to track US joint forces and operations from long distances.
China had already launched more than 470 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites, “which are feeding information into a powerful sensor-to-shooter kill web,” Saltzman said in March last year.
This “kill web,” which links sensors directly to strike units, accelerates attack speed through data sharing and automation, enabling strikes to be completed within seconds, he said.
Meanwhile, the Stimson Center held a seminar titled “The Realities of an Invasion of Taiwan,” where senior fellow Dan Grazier, fellow James Siebens and research associate MacKenna Rawlins analyzed the strategic, political, economic and military factors that China might consider in planning an invasion of Taiwan.
Launching an amphibious assault on the nation would be fraught with risks, including nuclear escalation, political instability and economic repercussions, with a low probability of success, they said.
The risks China would face in invading Taiwan far outweigh any potential gains, Grazier added.
China has many other military options at its disposal that could be more advantageous and easier to execute, such as a blockade, Siebens said, adding that China is working toward unification through political warfare and coercion.
The US must first help Taiwan respond to the actions Beijing is already undertaking, rather than focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, he said.
Should China decide to invade, there would be early indicators, including the weakening of Taiwan’s defenses, seizure of its outlying islands and increased coercive measures, he added.
The US and other like-minded nations should emphasize how important their economic relationships with Taiwan are to their own national interests, Siebens said.
China must understand that any attempt to impose a maritime blockade on Taiwan would not only constitute an act of aggression against Taiwan, but also against all of its partners, he said.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS