Taiwan’s military strength ranks 15th in the world and ninth in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of conventional war-making capability across land, sea and air, according to a survey conducted by military Web site Global Firepower.
The nation’s ranking has fluctuated between 14th and 18th since 2009, peaking at 14th in 2011 and 2012 and last year standing at 17th, according to the Web site.
A total of 126 nations make up the list this year, with the US at the top followed by Russia and China.
Taiwan outranks Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore in the Asia-Pacific region, while falling behind China, South Korea, Japan, Turkey, Indonesia and Australia, the survey shows.
“With an eye on independence still, the island nation of Taiwan must retain a large, modern fighting force and powerful allies for its own security,” the Web site says.
In terms of available manpower, Taiwan’s 290,000 active front-line personnel are ranked 20th globally. China tops the category with 2.33 million active military personnel, followed by the US with 1.4 million, Russia with 760,000 and North Korea with 690,000, according to the survey.
Taiwan ranks 14th in the land system category with 2,005 battle tanks. Russia heads the category with 15,000 tanks, followed by China with 9,100 tanks and the US with 8,800 tanks.
Taiwan’s 288 fighters and interceptors make it into the top 10 in air power, falling behind Japan by just one aircraft. The US tops the category with its 2,207 fighter aircraft, ahead of China with 1,066 fighters.
“The fifth generation fighter is currently embodied by the Lockheed F-22 Raptor, with competitors arising in both Russia and China, [while] fourth generation fighters remain a capable — and cost-effective — battlefield component,” the Web site says.
Taiwan is ranked 23rd in terms of naval power with 103 combat vessels. North Korea outnumbers all other competitors in the category with its 1,064 battleships. China has 673 vessels, while the US has 473, according to the survey. The listing includes battleforce ships made up of aircraft carriers, frigates, destroyers, corvettes and all auxiliary vessels.
In terms of submarines — a key development project in the nation’s defense industry — Taiwan is ranked 29th with its four submarines. The US tops the subcategory with 72 submarines, outnumbering North Korea by just two.
While nuclear capability is not taken into account, the ranking is based on a formula utilizing more than 50 different quantifiable factors, including values related to weaponry, number of service members, resources, logistical capabilities, finances and geography.
While most information is gathered via the CIA and data in the public domain, some statistics have been estimated where official numbers are not publicly available, the Web site says.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS