Taiwan says mass production of long-range missiles has begun

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan has begun mass production of a long-range missile and is developing three other models, a senior official said Thursday, in a rare admission of efforts to develop its attack capability under increasing Chinese pressure.

China, which claims democratic Taiwan is its own territory, has stepped up military activity near the island as it tries to force the Taipei government to accept Beijing’s claims of sovereignty.

Taiwan’s armed forces, in the shadow of China’s, are in the midst of a program of modernization to provide a more effective deterrent, including the ability to strike back at bases deep in China in the event of a conflict.

When Taiwan’s Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng answered questions from the legislature in parliament, he said developing a long-range attack capability was a priority.

“We hope it will be long range, accurate and mobile,” he said, adding that research into such weapons by the state-owned National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology “had never stopped.”

In addition to Chiu, the Institute’s deputy director Leng Chin-hsu said a long-range missile on land had already entered production, and three other long-range missiles were in development.

Leng said it was “inconvenient” for him to provide details on how far the missile could fly.

The institute, which leads Taiwan’s weapons development efforts, has conducted a series of missile tests off the southeast coast in recent months.

Media in Taiwan has images of missiles being launched and instructions given to planes to stay clear of the test area, but the tests are otherwise shrouded in secrecy.

Taiwan’s armed forces have traditionally focused on defending the island against Chinese attack.

But President Tsai Ing-wen has stressed the importance of developing an “asymmetric” deterrent, using mobile devices that are hard to find and destroy, and that can hit targets far from the coast of Taiwan.

Washington, Taipei’s main foreign arms supplier, was keen to create a military counterbalance to Chinese armed forces, building on an effort known within the Pentagon as “Fort Taiwan.”