Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing.
Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace.
Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA warplanes, because “enemy aircraft will be exposed to Taiwan’s air defense system and be within our firepower range.”
Photo: CNA
While the Taiwanese military has often asserted its ability to defend the country, it has rarely claimed to have “air superiority” as Po did.
Chiu also asked Po if the Taiwanese armed forces were capable of countering the PLA’s numerical advantage in fighter aircraft.
Maintaining high-quality military aircraft is more important than quantity, Po said, adding that the air force has trained its pilots in different tactics to counter a potential Chinese invasion.
Despite Po’s comment, a previously leaked Pentagon document questioned such an assertion.
According to classified Pentagon documents made public by the Washington Post in April last year, Taiwan’s military leaders doubt their air defenses can “accurately detect missile launches” and that only about half of the nation’s aircraft are capable of effectively engaging the enemy.
The documents also said Taiwan feared that moving its aircraft to shelters could take up to a week, leaving them vulnerable to missile strikes, and that China’s use of civilian ships for military purposes was hampering US intelligence’s ability to predict an invasion.
Pentagon analysts concluded that the Chinese air force would find it far easier to establish early air superiority than Russia did in its invasion of Ukraine.
The documents were part of a series of documents allegedly leaked by US air national guardsman Jack Teixeira.
At the time, the Ministry of National Defense issued a statement in which it described the leaked documents as being full of “fictitious content.”
It also gave its usual assurance that it was continuing to beef up the nation’s air defense capabilities and closely monitoring the PLA’s movements to counter Chinese military threats.
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