Taiwan conducted live-fire missile drills on Monday amid growing military pressure from China’s communist regime.
Surface-to-air missiles, including U.S.-made Patriot PAC II and Taiwan’s own Sky Bow III, were launched in front of reporters who took a rare trip to a sensitive test site on the island’s southeastern corner.
It’s the first missile drills since Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing branded a “separatist,” became president of the self-ruled island, over which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims sovereignty.
Taiwan has raised concerns over Chinese military activity in recent years as Beijing seeks to assert its sovereignty claims, and Taipei has been strengthening its deterrence abilities.
Chang Cheng, a Taiwanese missile expert, told The Epoch Times the missiles are crucial for the Taiwanese military to maintain air superiority in a potential conflict.
Defense Minister Wellington Koo Li-hsiung oversaw the exercise at dawn on Monday at the Jiupeng Military Base in Pingtung County, southeast Taiwan.
Taiwan’s Air Defense and Missile Command test-fired Patriot PAC II and Sky Bow III missiles into the skies, while a warship off the coast fired a RIM-66 Standard missile.
Col. Kao Shu-li, head of the command’s 794th Brigade, told reporters missiles were fired to intercept targets in the air.
Defense ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang said all missiles had hit their mark.
It has “proven two points,” he told reporters.
“The first being that the training of our soldiers is very solid, the other being that our weapons systems have been verified during this process of live firing missiles.
“All in all, we have achieved our objectives,” he added.
Jiupeng is also where the government-run weapons developer National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) tests new missiles, like the longer-range version of the Hsiung Feng, designed to hit targets deep in China.
Regarding unconfirmed reports that the exercise also tested Sky Bow IV and surface-to-surface cruise missile Hsiung Feng IIE, Sun said the department would not comment on highly classified missiles.
In an email to The Epoch Times, Chang, former chief engineer in NCSIST’s Hsiung Feng III project, said the significance of surface-to-air missiles is evident, given the importance of maintaining air superiority.
“In modern wars, without air superiority, there is no naval or land supremacy,” he said. “So air superiority is extremely important.”
Between July 10 and 11, Taiwan detected 66 Chinese military flights in the island nation’s airspace in 24 hours, the highest daily record.
On Monday, five Chinese military aircraft and 11 vessels were detected, Taiwan authorities said.
US Support
Although the United States does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, it maintains ties with Taipei under the Taiwan Relations Act, which allows Washington to provide military equipment for the island’s self-defense.Recently, Trump and defense experts have also called on Taipei to increase its defense spending.
Earlier this month, Lai announced a record-high defense budget of NT$647 billion (about $20 billion) for next year, representing a record 6 percent increase.
Taiwan’s defense budget is currently 2.5 percent of Taiwan’s GDP, but some U.S. experts, including former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, said the amount should be doubled to 5 percent.
