Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

plawolf said:

Jiang would never have been able to invade the mainland with just the resources of Taiwan. And with China firmingly in the Soviet camp during much of the Cold War, the only scenario where retaking the mainland was on the card was a WWIII situation where the Soviets were too busy fighting America and NATO, and Jiang could get America military help.

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taxiya said:

There is no doubt that Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai Shek) had plan to retake mainland, BUT the newspaper article that OedoSoldier referred to is NOT owned or controlled by Jiang's government. It was even shutdown by Jiang in 1960. See the history here.

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The article is so ridiculous that it envisioned to take up the whole Asian landmass east of the Ural for China, see the "new" provinces added in the picture, they are Siberia. Only during the Yuan dynasty did China as a state have some part of southern Siberia as directly controlled territory because the Mongols roamed these areas. No other Chinese dynasty had ruled or claimed to rule these area except Qing and Ming (after Yuan) controlled eastern coastal area of Siberia.

It is also ridiculous that the article envisioned bombing of Moscow with nukes. Whose nukes? Jiang was dreaming to return to mainland, but he was not crazy of annexing 2/3 of USSR and nuke Moscow.

This is to say that the author of that newspaper was not historically correct, and politically and legally not representing Jiang's ROC government.

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plawolf said:

Jiang would never have been able to invade the mainland with just the resources of Taiwan. And with China firmingly in the Soviet camp during much of the Cold War, the only scenario where retaking the mainland was on the card was a WWIII situation where the Soviets were too busy fighting America and NATO, and Jiang could get America military help.

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SilentObserver said:

I found it quite ridiculous too almost comical. Saw this on OedeoSoldier's twitter and just thought it was interesting and wanted to share with you guys. It is nothing but pure fantasy but an interesting one. I like how hydrogen bombing (with American nukes) of Moscow was specified, icing on the cake.

ROC on Taiwan would have had a hard time retaking the mainland, near impossible if you ask me. In 1950 China had 550 million people and Taiwan had 8 million, maybe add in a few hundred throusand KMT troops in Burma. A people's war would bog down any invasion force and the mainland was starting industrialization. The only possible way they could have retaken the mainland would have been to somehow make the PRC citizens flip sides on a massive scale. This is nearly impossible since years prior many of these people were flipped from the KMT and peasants were promised land reform. Many KMT troops fled or defected to CCP, in fact the KMT that split with the ROC KMT still remains in the PRC government.

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China looks at Taiwan like Russia looked at Crimea, a key territory to control in asserting its power in the Asia-Pacific, three experts on maritime security said Friday.

In answer to a question at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. Sarah Kirchberger, from the Institute for Security Policy at Germany’s Kiel University, noted a senior Chinese naval official wrote, “We should do what Putin did in Crimea to Taiwan.”

In controlling Taiwan, China would have direct access to the Western Pacific and extend its influence in the East and South China Seas.

How the United States and its allies — Japan, South Korea and Australia — would respond to overt aggression from Beijing is unclear.

Russia’s seizure of Crimea drew an increasingly stringent series of economic sanctions from the United States and the European Union. Coupled with Moscow’s backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine, there was a new commitment of American ground, naval and air forces to Europe and a steady increase in NATO member countries spending on security.

China, however, is a far greater economic power than Russia, and is not afraid to use trade to settle disputes in its favor, the panelists said.

The Chinese have the hard power to force an issue but risk a United States and its Pacific allies response said John Watts, of the Atlantic Council. So it has chosen to follow a hybrid path of military threats and provocations — from island building on coral reefs, aggressive presence in contested waters and severely curbing trade with South Korea and Taiwan to gain an upper hand in any dispute.

For example, the Chinese Coast Guard is now under Beijing’s Military Commission and operating in the East China Sea with a naval frigate. The moves require a greater commitment from Tokyo’s Coast Guard in response. This also distracts from Japan’s ability to rein in illegal fishing in its exclusive economic zone by Chinese and North Korean vessels.

In addition, China has also stepped up its submarine presence in the East China Sea and use of aerial drones to gather intelligence.

China has stepped up to almost daily probes into Japan’s air defense networks. Included in these flights are simulated cruise missile attacks on Japan’s homeland, so they cannot be easily ignored. One possibility to ease the strain on Japan’s air arm would be to have the United States Air Force, operating from Okinawa, also respond to these flights, he said.

The long-range impact of the daily alerts of Japan’s air arm cuts the time available for training and degrades its overall readiness for other missions, Kotani added.

The reasons for all this activity by the People’s Liberation Army is to show that it can take its naval and air forces out of the water closest to the mainland into the Western Pacific. It is a direct response to what it believes is a continuing threat from the United States, its allies and partners in the Pacific — who are practicing a policy of containment, Kotani and Kirchberger said.

Kirchberger stressed how Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders see a democratic Taiwan, in particular, “as a threat to the stability of the [Communist] system.” They clearly understand that China’s largest population, economic and industrial centers are concentrated on its eastern coast and under air and sea threat from this American system of alliances and partnerships.

The military systems that specifically concern China include Aegis Ashore, ballistic missile defense primarily Terminal High Altitude Area Defense now deployed in Korea and global strike capabilities launched from air bases on Guam to Japan and patrolling ballistic missile submarines. “They challenge Chinese nuclear deterrent,” she said.

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druid198405 said:

Just saw this, Taiwan approved to market to U.S. suppliers for submarine equipment, haven't checked any other news sites, anyone else see this? Please try to keep this strictly about Taiwan's military and leave the politics out of this.

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The State Department has given the go-ahead for American defense companies to market submarine technology to Taiwan to aid in its quest to locally develop and build its own submarines.

According to media reports from Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense spokesman Maj. Gen. Chen Chung-chi and presidential office spokesman Sidney Lin confirmed that the State Department has granted the marketing license required for the sale of technology to Taiwan.

The granting of the license is a significant step for

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, and Lin added that the decision would upgrade Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, as well as benefit the safety and security of the region.

Neither official provided specifics about the submarine-related system the marketing license has been approved for. However, Liao Yen-fan, a Taipei-based analyst who focuses on air power and the Taiwanese military, told Defense News that the approvals cover a marketing license for a submarine combat management system, or CMS, along with a separate technical assistance agreement.

This will cover some of the critical areas of submarine development that Taiwan lacks, which according to Dr. Collin Koh, research fellow at the Maritime Security Programme at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, also includes sonar systems, modern periscopes and weapons systems.

The latter will be in addition to the Mk-48 advanced heavyweight torpedo Taiwan gained approval from the State Department to acquire in June 2017 under the Foreign Miliary Sales program. However, Liao said that the latest license approvals will instead fall under the Direct Commercial Sales program, and the two companies the approvals have been granted for have not yet been named.

Propulsion questions

Propulsion is one area the U.S. will be unable to assist in Taiwan’s submarine quest. Taiwan is seeking conventionally powered diesel-electric submarines, while the U.S. Navy currently operates only nuclear-powered boats. Taiwan may need to seek help from other countries that build diesel-electric submarines for assistance, particularly if it seeks enhanced underwater propulsion systems such as Air-Independent Propulsion or AIP, according to Koh.

Koh added that if Taiwan is content to eschew AIP for its new submarines, it is within the capabilities of Taiwan’s own local shipbuilding industry and National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology or NCSIST to develop its own diesel-electric propulsion system, or adapt commercial marine engines and generators for submarine use.

The submarines are a central plank of Taiwan’s ambitious $15 billion shipbuilding and force modernization program, with the equivalent of $94.81 million being allocated from December 2016 to December 2020 for the design of the new boats. It has been reported that preliminary design was completed in March, although the MND denied the reports. Taiwan is also carrying out a life-extension program on its two Zwaardvis-class diesel-electric submarines purchased from the Netherlands in the 1980s.

Taiwan, an island just off the east coast of China and separated by the Taiwan Strait, is viewed by China as a rogue province following the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. A massive force modernization program over the past two decades has seen China substantially outgunning Taiwan today, and submarines are seen to be an important asymmetric capability and will complicate any attempt by China to take Taiwan by force.

China has also successfully used its substantial economic and political clout to restrict the sale of advanced weapons to Taiwan. Even the United States is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act, which limits arms sales to “self-defense” weapons.

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