The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) plans to be fully equipped to carry out a full-scale resumption of hostilities against Taiwan by 2020, a Ministry of Defense report released yesterday showed.
Possible PLA strategies against Taiwan include combined arms tactics, naval blockades, artillery shelling and amphibious assaults, the 2018 Report on the People’s Liberation Army said.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has not renounced its intention to conquer Taiwan through military means, and its adherence to the “one China” principle, denial of the “one China, one Taiwan” system and refusal to acknowledge the de facto sovereignty of the Taiwanese government presents an ever-growing threat to the Taiwanese military, the report said.
Photo: Reuters
The PLA drafts its plans for minimal losses and maximum efficiency, and would aim to conduct a lightning-fast invasion aimed at a swift conclusion of military operations, it said.
China sees unification with Taiwan as the unwavering “duty” of the CCP, it added.
A declaration of independence, domestic instability, receiving or developing nuclear weapons, a delay in political talks geared toward unification, foreign intervention in Taiwan’s internal affairs or the deployment of foreign forces to Taiwan are possible flashpoints that could lead to a Chinese invasion of the nation, the ministry said.
PLA exercises over the past few years have been aimed at preparing for war against Taiwan, but the Taiwan Strait remains a hard-to-overcome natural defense due to the PLA Navy’s lack of transport vessels and inadequate logistics capability, the report said.
The PLA is expected to look into acquiring the capability to launch joint landing operations, the report said, adding that the ever-growing threat the PLA poses to Taiwan bears close monitoring.
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
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