Taiwan faces its biggest military threat from China's growing missile arsenal, officials said Tuesday, as they pressed the United States for more advanced weaponry.
"The biggest Chinese communist threat would come from their ballistic missile DF-15s and DF-21s," Lieutenant-commander Hsu Ming-huang warned while briefing reporters here on the mainland's arms buildup.
He said China had deployed at least 200 DF-15 and DF-21 missiles in the southeastern provinces facing Taiwan, and he expected the number to increase to 650 in the next five years.
Hsu said China "would double their menace towards the island" after land-based cruise missiles were deployed in the near future.
Military analysts here said Taiwan could not defend itself against such a threat.
With a range of 1,800 kilometers (1,080 miles), the cruise missiles, comparable to the US-made "Tomahawk," could be used to attack the enemy's commands and battle carrier groups, he noted.
"The sabre-rattling in the 1996 missile crisis also underscored the island's Achilles' heel in national defense," Hsu said, meaning the Taiwan's inability to defend itself against missile attacks.
The People's Liberation Army lobbed ballistic missiles into the shipping lanes off Taiwan in 1996 to scare local electorates out of voting for then-president Lee Teng-hui who was seeking another four-year term.
Hsu's remarks came as a new US Senate report found that Taiwan urgently needed access to high-tech arms, training and intelligence from Washington to stave off China's growing military threat.
The survey, leaked to the Washington Times, suggested that current US policy toward Taiwan was "outdated, dangerous," and far from heading off a conflict with China over the island, could in fact trigger a confrontation.
The US report said Taiwan was fishing for four Kidd class destroyers to plug a defense gap before a projected delivery date of 2009 for four Aegis missile destroyers.
China has strongly opposed the proposed arms sale on grounds that the destroyers could be used as a mobile platform for the US plan to develop an anti-missile defense system (TMD).
China has threatened to invade Taiwan, which it regards as part of its territory awaiting reunification, should it declare independence -- TAHSI, Taiwan (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
