A new US military study concluded that the massive missile force China has aimed at Taiwan is being constantly enhanced and improved.
While the actual number of missiles may not have increased much over the past few years — there are believed to be about 1,600 in total — China is introducing newer missiles with better range, accuracy and warheads.
“It [China] has fielded a large, diverse array of increasingly capable short range ballistic missiles, particularly within range of Taiwan,” the report by US Naval War College associate professor Andrew Erickson and senior RAND Corp political scientist Michael Chase said.
Published in this month’s National Interest, the report argues that China’s efforts to undermine Japan’s administrative control over the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台列嶼), which Japan calls the Senkaku Islands and Taiwan also claims, are raising the possibility of a crisis that could draw in the US by challenging the credibility of the US’ extended deterrence.
“To deter negative Chinese actions in this vital but volatile region while avoiding dangerous escalation, Washington must better understand the ultimate instrument of Chinese deterrence: the People’s Liberation Army Second Artillery Force [PLASAF], which controls the country’s land-based nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles and its ... land-attack cruise missiles,” the report said.
Possessing the world’s second-largest economy and a growing defense budget has enabled China to deploy more formidable military capabilities, Erickson and Chase said.
They said that Beijing wants to wield these capabilities to increase its leverage in disputes regarding island and maritime intervention “in the event of a conflict with one of its neighbors.”
The PLASAF’s ballistic missile development program has produced longer-range, more accurate, improved-payload missiles to upgrade its existing arsenal.
“China’s missile force has deployed a variety of systems, including short-range ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan, mobile conventionally armed medium-range ballistic missiles for regional deterrence and conventional-strike operations, and new mobile, nuclear-armed ICBMs for strategic deterrence,” the report said.
The report said that to increase its influence over disputed territorial and maritime claims around its contested periphery in peacetime and, if necessary, through wartime operations, China has developed and deployed the world’s foremost force of theater ballistic missiles.
At the theater level, China’s missile force is capable of supporting a variety of types of campaigns against Taiwan, the report said.
The report cites a US Department of Defense finding that China probably could not now enforce a full military blockade, particularly if a major naval power intervened, but its ability to do so would “improve significantly” within 10 years.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
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
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
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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