Washington is blocking the delivery of crucial parts Taiwan needs to produce its home-grown cruise missiles — a vital part of the nation’s armory that could help repel an invasion by China — in what a former US defense official said was a bid to placate China, the latest edition of Defense News said.
The story said the US State Department has refused for more than a year to release parts to the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology — the military-run research organization that develops the nation’s weapons — in the hope that this will block production of the Hsiung Feng (Brave Wind) II-E land-attack cruise missile.
Taiwanese officials have met with their US counterparts twice to try to remedy the situation, but to no avail, Defense News said.
Problems have arisen because the missile, which is capable of striking many of China’s larger cities, is classified by the US State Department as an “offensive weapon” and therefore not covered by the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which only allows for US provision of weapons of a defensive nature.
Washington has been under pressure from China to put a halt to the missile project, according to sources quoted in the story.
“If China barks, the State Department jumps,” one former official was quoted as saying.
The news comes immediately after reports on Monday that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) recently ordered the production of 300 Hsiung Feng missiles. The Ministry of National Defense refused to confirm this.
If the US ban is confirmed, the production plans for the 300 missiles appear to be in jeopardy.
Michael Wang (王高成), director of the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies at Tamkang University, said: “If the story is true, it would fit with the US’ current China policy.”
The US wants to avoid any escalation in the cross-strait relationship, Wang added, which would be consistent with its TRA commitments.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS