Taiwan test-fires missile capable of attacking rival China

Asia World News ^ | Tue, 06 Mar 2007 | DPA

[IrishMike]

Taipei - Taiwan has test-fired missiles capable of hitting major economic centres of rival China, local news media reported Tuesday, amid a new tension across the Taiwan Strait. Military-funded Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology test-fired the local-made Hsiung Feng 2E, which has a range of up to 1,000 kilometres, last month, Taipei-based United Daily News reported.

Quoting an unnamed institute source, the paper said the missile is able to hit Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai - the economic centres of China in the south and central parts of the mainland.

It said President Chen Shui-bian inspected the test-firing along with Defence Minister Lee Jye.

The defence ministry, however, declined to comment on the report. The institute also refused to confirm whether it had test-fired the missile or not.

But parliamentarians of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said it explained why Chen was bold enough to say that Taiwan must declare independence.

They said the fact that Taiwan is capable of producing missiles that can threaten China has given Chen a strong boost.

Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still regards the island an integral part of the mainland. It has repeatedly warned that if Taiwan ever declares independence officially, it will send forces to attack the island.

............ The comments prompted Beijing to lash out at Chen. Washington, an informal ally of Taiwan and arms supplier for the island, also demanded that Chen keep his previous promises to refrain from further escalating cross-strait tensions.

David Wang, spokesman of Taiwan's foreign ministry, Tuesday said he had no idea about the test-fire issue, but stressed Taiwan must have adequate defence capability to safeguard itself in the face of rapid military buildup of China.

[Sam Ketcham]

If Taiwan doesn't have nukes, the Red will be there in no time. If we support Taiwan, we will run out of cheap computers, plastic toys etc. On the other hand, if they do have nukes, all will wonder "Who flung Flan"!

[WoofDog123]

pretty sure they already did once, so one can only assume there are pieces just waiting to be assembled.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Wow! This missile test, F-16 jets, and AMRAAM missiles. I'm sure Krinton and Karter think it's just awful. They're not happy unless the communists are powerful and invading their neighbors.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Suck it, China.

[nepppen]

amen brother

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[California Patriot]

Outstanding news!

[Plutarch]

Being a bully is not so much fun when you get hit back!

[neutronsgalore]

"Since China has not made its move, this could mean that Taiwan does not have a program or it is being kept very secret."

I agree. If China was even remotely sure Taiwan was about to gain nuclear capability, they'd strike. But if Taiwan has a secret program and manages to develop & deploy nuclear warheads before China finds out, then the chances of war drop dramatically in the short term. China isn't about to risk having it's economic heart reduced to radioactive ashes unless they are pretty sure they can locate and strike the missiles before they can be launched.

[Between the Lines]

Taiwan has three nuclear reactors, according to Wikipedia.

Actually they have six. There are two reactors at each site.

[JasonC]

They built their first research reactor in 1956. They ran a full scale nuclear research program from then until Chiang Ki Shek's death in 1975. In the early 80s they were apparently still experimenting on plutonium. They have 3 declared civilian plants with 2 operating reactors each, generating 20% of their electric power.

[JasonC]

Nobody has to. The efficient way of making nuclear fuel is to create plutonium in a breeder reactor, not to separate naturally occuring U-235 from all the surrounding U-238. We pursued several different routes originally because we did not know which one would work. Later proliferators pursue several because reactors are heavily regulated and relatively easy to spot. But every large scale nuclear power gets its fuel by putting uranium around a running reactor, picking up radiation from the reactor that transforms a portion of the uranium 238 into plutonium 239. Which can be chemically separated from the surrounding uranium relatively easily (because they are chemically distinct, having a different number of electrons, unlike U-235 and U-238, which differ only in their nucleus and their mass, but are chemically indistinguishable).

Taiwan ran a research reactor from the later 1950s until the early 1980s. It now runs 6 reactors in 3 commercial nuclear power plants. It has had amply time and industrial knowhow to create a breeder program and create stocks of plutonium. Whether it has actually done so is anybody's guess, but probably they have. Certainly haven't told anyone so, however. As for feedstocks of uranium, they got plenty for their reactors from the US and from South Africa.

[JasonC]

90% of memory chip assembly in the entire world occurs on the island of Taiwan. Methinks more than plastic toys are at stake.

[MistrX]

Time to give Taiwan a few W-88's.

Just in case.

[MistrX]

Time to give Taiwan a few W-88's.

Just in case.

[old republic]

Forgot to mention that due to their one-child only policy, China is about to have millions of men who will never have an opportunity to marry. They're gonna be pissed off.

And what will the Chinese reaction be to a women shortage? Will they import other countries women en masse? Will they become restless and revolt against their government? Will the government channel this unrest towards its enemies? Men do crazy things when they don't have women, take the example from Roman history of the Rape of the Sabine women as an example. Who knows what a few hundred million desperate men will do when they are desperate...

(The rape of the Sabine women is a story from Roman history which tells how the Romans had a shortage of women in their population. In order to solve this problem, the Roman government resorted to inviting a neighboring people (the Sabines) to a religious festival, and on a given signal, the Romans kidnapped the Sabine Women at sword point and made them their wives).

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Others have stated their opinion that Taiwan has nuclear weapons, not just fissile material.

Comment 13 was questioning whether Taiwan: a) had access to uranium ore, and b) had a nuclear reactor (turns out that they have three, according to Wikipedia), if that was not already clear.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

What an attitude. Indiscriminately murder huge amounts of civilians merely "to get back" at the PRC. It was a good decision for the United States to stop its biological weapons program, more so than its chemical weapons program, and even more so than its nuclear one (nuclear and chemical weapons seem as though they should be legitimate--but definitely not a weapon that can spread through families. Biological weapons are the hardest to control of the three).

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Appreciated.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

A commerical or civilian nuclear reactor, by design, is a very poor producer of fissle material.

The U.S. and other acknowleged nuclear powers use a "production" reactor.

What France sold Saddam was neither a civilian nuclear reactor nor a production reactor, but a research reactor. By it's very nature, a research reactor can be configured for either purpose.

Standard issue commercial nuclear reactors, like the ones that generate 75% of France's electricity, are worthless for making nuclear weapons.

The IAEA is supposed to keep an eye on signatory countries and see that reactors and fuel are not "misused". Signatory countries agree not to sell materials or equipment to non signatories or signatories who do not comply with their inspection regimes (hello, Europe).

North Korea might be one of the few non signatory countries capable of producing fissile material without aid from a signatory country. Iran has withdrawn from the IAEA, so no signatory (hello, Russia) is supposed give them any assistance with nuclear reactors or materials.