Global Courant 2023-05-04 23:40:12
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has deployed at least 57 fighter jets, 19 naval vessels and a military drone to the Taiwan Strait in a fresh outburst of anger over reports that the United States wants to produce weapons in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said 19 Chinese warplanes had flown over the centerline of the Taiwan Strait in the three-day period leading up to Thursday morning. The ministry is closely monitoring the actions of the Chinese military, it said, and will release an updated count of the flights involved on Friday at 6 a.m. Taiwan.
The incidents occurred as 25 US defense contractors attended the Taiwan-US Defense Industry Forum in Taipei on Wednesday morning.
Steven Rudder, a retired United States Navy Lieutenant General, said during the forum that he and the group of U.S. defense contractors “have been on a mission to have a shared vision of a free, open, resilient, and inclusive relationship not only between the U.S. and Taiwan, but for the region.”
Steven Rudder, a retired US Navy lieutenant general, gives a speech at the Taiwan-US Defense Industry Forum. Photo: Central Press Office
“Some US defense contractors are considering including Taiwan in their supply chains.” said Julian Kuo, a Taiwanese political scientist and former member of the Legislative Yuan. “While it does not involve transferring advanced technology, it is possible that Taiwanese companies will start producing munitions for US companies.”
Kuo said that with Japan planning to add more than 100 fuel and ammunition depots to the Ryukyu Islands, the US could also establish dozens of arms factories in Taiwan. He said such a plan is necessary because it will be difficult to transport ammunition from the Philippines to Taiwan once a war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait.
He said Taiwanese companies have no experience in weapons design, but they are capable of producing parts for US weapons manufacturers.
On Wednesday, the China Daily, an English newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), published a editorial with the caption, “USA raises the bar in foul play, but must be forewarned.”
The Chinese version of the editorial was republished Thursday by other state media outlets with the headline “It’s a Dangerous Move for the US to Produce Weapons in Taiwan.”
“U.S. officials have arranged for a delegation of 25 arms dealers to visit Taiwan starting Tuesday, apparently to explore the possibility of manufacturing weapons, mainly drones and munitions, on the island, and ostensibly to support secessionist leader Tsai Ing-wen. independence agenda,” writes the author of the article.
“By constantly supplying weapons to Ukraine, the US has failed to deliver weapons to Taiwan on time,” he says. “Producing weapons in Taiwan allows both the US arms dealers and the US government to get around many of the problems of selling weapons to the island.”
He says the US has crossed a line and its moves pose a serious threat to China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. By allowing the US arms dealers delegation to visit Taiwan, the Biden administration is “playing with fire” and will eventually burn itself, he continues.
He adds that the dirty American behavior could forever change United States Strait relations or China-US ties.
Military drones
In March 2019, Taiwan ordered four MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) for about $600 million. The US State Department approved the deal in November 2020.
MQ-9B military drone Photo: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
The deal may have shrunk in the meantime, and the drones in question appear to have morphed from the SeaGuardian into an aircraft capable of providing sustained intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
Defense post reported on Tuesday that the US Air Force had ordered four MQ-9B SkyGuardians for Taiwan, but the size of the order was capped at $217.6 million. The manufacturer describes the SkyGuardian model as a “maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft”. The GA-ASI will also provide Taipei with two ground control stations, spare parts and other support equipment.
Lee Shih-Chiang, Chief of the Strategic Planning Department of the Taiwan Ministry of Defense, said Thursday that the four drones will be completed by 2025, but the next six months of training will be conducted in the US, rather than Taiwan, due to cost considerations.
Taiwan Air Force general officer Tsao Chin-ping said all four drones and related equipment will arrive in Taiwan by 2027 and be ready for use six months later.
Taiwan’s Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said Taiwan has ordered 66 units of F-16V fighters from Lockheed Martin in the US, but delivery of the first batch of the jets has been delayed to the third quarter of 2024 from the latest quarter of this year as production was impacted by the pandemic.
On February 7 this year, Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) revealed a series of domestically-made attack drones, including one similar to the American AeroVironment Switchblade 300. The NCSIST said it is working with private companies to build prototypes of its drones, but it did not name its partners.
Switchblade 300 Photo: AeroVironment
Chinese responses
Following a Japanese media of April 11 report that 25 US defense contractors would send their representatives to Taiwan to discuss the joint production of drones and munitions. Taiwan press reported on April 26 that Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies and AeroVironment would be among the delegates.
“US arms dealers are used to provoking confrontations and conflicts and exploiting opportunities to make money from wars, and the US government is also used to protecting them,” said Zhu Fenglian, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Chinese State Council. . said on April 26.
Zhu said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had colluded with the US over the past six years and recklessly bought US weapons at inflated prices totaling $22 billion. She said that Taiwanese compatriots are now tied to the “Taiwan independence car.”
She said that the DPP is not protecting Taiwan, but is harming and destroying it.
On the same day, the PLA sent a TB-001 military drone to fly around Taiwan. Taiwan said its Sky Bow anti-ballistic missiles at Chihhang Air Base were placed on full readiness and some fighter jets took off on April 27. On Wednesday of this week, the Chinese BZK-005 drone was seen flying around Taiwan.
The BZK-005 from China is similar to the MQ-9 from the United States. Photo: Baidu
Prior to this, China’s Commerce Ministry said in February it had added Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Missiles & Defense to its list of “untrustworthy entities” for selling weapons to Taiwan. It ordered the two companies to pay a combined fine of 99 billion yuan (US$14.4 billion), but it was ignored.
The Ministry said last month that it had strengthened its curbs by banning the duo from trading with Chinese companies. It claimed the two companies would suffer if they failed to source Chinese parts and rare earths.
Read: Raytheon, Lockheed take a balloon war hit in China
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
Similar:
Loading…
