The armed forces are to step up efforts to tighten operational security, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday, after an article in a US-based magazine said that China had precisely mapped the locations of 12 anti-ship missile systems in Taiwan.
A Chinese research and consulting company had pinpointed 12 locations across Taiwan proper or in its vicinity where the Shore Based Anti-ship Missile Group, comprising stationary and mobile units armed with indigenous Hsiung Feng anti-ship missiles, had deployed its units during China’s Joint Sword-2024A drills in May, an article published in Foreign Policy on Monday said.
Koo told reporters that the armed forces would redouble efforts to manage operational security, including improving measures to hide military assets.
Photo: Chou Min-hung, Taipei Times
The deployment of any missile unit in the Hai Feng Group was not limited to one predetermined location, Koo said, but added that he could not comment on the details.
Koo has previously said that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is capable of locating fixed military bases in Taiwan, so it is key that the PLA be prevented from locating or predicting Taiwan’s mobile military deployments.
The Hsiung Feng II and Hsiung Feng III missiles were developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology.
The missile batteries can be deployed in ship-launched, vehicle-mounted or land-based configurations for coastal defense.
While stationary Hai Feng bases can be located by Chinese satellites, the Foreign Policy article, titled “Taiwanese missile units are giving away their positions to China,” said that the media and the public in Taiwan had allowed a Chinese company to get a hold of information on the positions of missile deployments.
The company located some of the mobile missile units with the help of photographs previously published by Taiwanese media or messages posted on social media, the article said.
“While the Taiwanese media or netizens didn’t go as far as specifying the exact location, all it took for the Chinese researchers was some web sleuthing using public resources like Google Maps to search for and pinpoint exact spots from available photos,” it said.
The article also cited a United Daily News reporter as saying that he was able to take photos of missile launch vehicles of units stationed in Kenting National Park in Pingtung County in response to the Chinese drills thanks to tip-offs from locals.
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