Foreign buyers are the primary source driving shipbuilding production in China, with Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) being one of them especially concerning, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said.
In its 69-page report Ship Wars: Confronting China’s Dual-Use Shipbuilding Empire published on Tuesday last week, the Washington-based think tank said much of the production was carried out at tier-1 and tier-2 shipyards.
The CSIS study categorizes each of the 307 Chinese shipyards active from 2019 to last year into four tiers that reflect their degree of integration with China’s military industrial ecosystem, with tier-1 being “very high risk” while tier-2 means “lower risk.”
Photo: Reuters
‘STRIKING’
More than 75 percent of the production at these shipyards were sold to for firms based outside of China or Hong Kong, including US military allies such as Denmark, France, Japan, South Korea, and most strikingly Taiwan, the CSIS said.
“Taiwan’s position as a top client of China’s naval shipyards is particularly striking, given the direct threat the PLAN’s [Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy] rapid expansion poses to the island’s security,” it said.
Citing Evergreen, the largest container cargo shipper in Taiwan, the CSIS said that 15 percent of its active fleet was built at tier-1 shipyards, with more on order.
RISKS
Many of those orders have gone to tier-1 shipyards such as Hudong-Zhonghua and Jiangnan, which are the same facilities that produce warships explicitly designed to support the PLAN in conducting amphibious assaults or other military operations across the Taiwan Strait, it added.
While companies buy vessels from China due to their lower costs, “governments should balance the potential benefits of cost savings with the risk of contributing to China’s naval development,” the CSIS said.
Tier-1 shipyards receive substantial state funding and contracts, ensuring a steady stream of resources to fuel rapid production, the think tank said.
As such, “these dual-use facilities blur the line between commercial and military activity, leveraging their infrastructure and output to accelerate naval production,” it added.
The CSIS advised Washington to encourage its allies to take quiet, informal actions to discourage their companies from buying from tier-1 shipyards.
“This is particularly true of Taiwan, as it stands to lose the most from China’s ongoing naval modernization,” it said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS