Taiwan’s military could deploy surface-to-surface missiles on the Penghu Islands as part of efforts to mount a more credible deterrent capability against China, budgetary documents submitted earlier this month say.
According to the documents, the Ministry of National Defense’s Missile Command would deploy three missile squadrons at a fixed base on Penghu as part of a NT$2.5 billion (US$84.8 million) “Ji Zhun” (戟隼) plan for the acquisition of Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) land attack cruise missiles. Part of the budget would reportedly be set aside for the construction of bunkers with dehumidifying systems to store the missiles.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2008 gave the go-ahead for the production of 300 HF-2Es. The missile, developed by the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, was approved for full production earlier this year.
Photo: Military News Agency via CNA
The HF-2E can be fired from land-based emplacements as well as surface vessels. With an estimated range of 600km, the HF-2E brings some ports in southern China within range, which would now be extended by being deployed on Penghu, located in the middle of the Taiwan Strait.
HF-2Es have been spotted on naval vessels anchored at Penghu’s Makung (馬公) and Tien Kung II surface-to-air missiles are deployed there.
Stating standard procedure on military deployments, a Ministry of National Defense spokesman yesterday would not comment on the report, which first appeared in the Chinese-language United Daily News on Wednesday last week.
The amount of money to be spent on indigenous defense programs next year is the highest since 2000, reflecting growing fears within the military of a possible scaling back of arms sales to Taiwan by the US.
According to a Defense News article on Monday, new development programs could include an anti-radiation unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a graphite bomb, an electromagnetic pulse weapon, a hypersonic vehicle testing capability, a long-range UAV, ship stealth technology and a catamaran-hulled ship.
A US-based defense analyst told the Taipei Times that insecurity stemming from perceived diminishing US support could spark Taiwan to adopt “more radical solutions,” such as the deployment of offensive missiles like the HF-2E.
“Given China’s increasingly formidable air defenses, using fixed wing air assets, such as F-5s or F-16s, to strike mainland targets has become increasingly costly. Therefore, investments in systems, such as the HF-2E, could be viewed as necessary to maintain a limited retaliation capability,” the analyst said.
US policy has long denied Taiwan efforts to acquire air-launched weapons considered offensive, such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions and AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles. The US Department of State has also repeatedly blocked, under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), attempts by Taiwan to acquire components that would help it extend the range and yield of its missiles.
“The State Department is the keeper of the MTCR and ‘defensive weapons’ flame of the Taiwan Relations Act,” Rick Fisher, a senior fellow on Asian military affairs at the Washington-based International Assessment and Strategy Center, told the Taipei Times last week. “Absent a White House level of policy change, the US is not going to offer any leadership in this direction.”
The first analyst said there seemed to be some inconsistencies in Washington’s strict adherence to the MTCR when it comes to Taiwan.
“I don’t see much complaining about China developing and fielding missile systems able to strike targets on Taiwan and throughout the region,” he said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
RSS