The military balance between China and Taiwan has shifted in China’s favor in recent years.
Following is a brief comparison between the military forces of China and Taiwan:
ARMY
China
Personnel:1.25 million
Tanks: 7,000
Artillery pieces: 8,000
Taiwan
Personnel:130,000
Tanks:1,100
Artillery pieces:1,600
China’s 2.3 million-strong armed forces — if all its branches are included — are far bigger than the world’s second-largest military, that of the US, whose forces number about 1.5 million. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was born out of the Red Army, a 5 million-strong peasant army, that swept the Communists to power in 1949.
Soviet expertise helped organize it into a mass army geared toward wars of attrition during the 1950s, when it fought in the 1950-1953 Korean War alongside North Korea. The PLA is morphing into a modern force capable of fighting short, high-intensity conflicts against high-tech adversaries.
The Pentagon estimates China has about 400,000 troops in the provinces directly facing Taiwan and about 3,000 tanks.
>> With US military aid, Taiwan transformed its army from the defeated remnants of the Nationalist forces that fled to Taiwan in 1949 into a modern, disciplined military that has recently downsized in favor of improved technology. Its primary role is countering any sea or air assault from China.
AIR FORCE
China
Fighters:1,680
Bombers/attack: 620
Taiwan
Fighters:388
Bombers/attack: 22
China used to rely on somewhat substandard copies of Soviet-made aircraft, but it has recently developed a more formidable design capacity. Its most advanced aircraft are Russian Su-30 and Su-27 fighters. China is also developing stealth fighters.
The figures above include land-based aircraft, which are technically part of China’s navy. Its one aircraft carrier has only just completed its first sea trial, but the navy plans to ultimately get more and operate fighters from them.
>> The backbone of Taiwan’s air force is made up of US-made F-16A/Bs, French-built Mirage 2000s and “Ching-kuo” Indigenous Defense Fighters. Taiwan has asked the US for an additional 66 F-16C/Ds, a more advanced version of what it already operates.
>> Training is the air force’s strong suit, but experts say that a well-planned early Chinese missile strike could take out most Taiwanese air base runways and render the nation’s aircraft, hidden in fortified or mountain bunkers, trapped on the ground or unable to return to base.
NAVY
China
Destroyers: 26
Frigates: 53
Submarines: 54
Taiwan
Destroyers: 4
Frigates: 22
Submarines: 4
Once limited to just protecting China’s coast, the Chinese navy has developed in leaps and bounds, thanks to strong support from Chinese
President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤). Chinese warships have conducted anti-piracy missions in the sea around Somalia, giving China its first taste of “blue water” operations far from home.
China has a large and expanding submarine fleet, including at least five nuclear-powered vessels.
>> Taiwan’s navy includes four submarines, two of which date from World War II and still have some of their original brass fittings, and a small fleet of destroyers and frigates.
MISSILES
Aside from the more than 1,500 missiles China aims at Taiwan, the Chinese navy is developing Dong Feng 21D anti-ship ballistic missiles, a weapon that could be used to take out US aircraft carriers.China also has nuclear weapons.
Taiwan has older-model Patriot missiles to intercept any missiles fired in its direction, though it is getting a more advanced version, the PAC-3, and it also has domestically made Hsiung Feng surface-to-surface missiles. These could be aimed at ships or used to target nearby Chinese cities, such as Shanghai.
Taiwan abandoned a covert nuclear weapons program in the 1980s after pressure from the US.
Sources: Reuters, US Department of Defense, International Institute for Strategic Studies, globalsecurity.org, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS