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China lacks the ability to fully invade Taiwan but is developing new hypersonic weapons and other methods to threaten the island, Taipei’s defence ministry has warned.
In an annual threat assessment of China, Taiwanese officials said Beijing would not yet be able to invade the island due to difficulties posed by traversing the Taiwan Strait and the army’s lack of landing equipment.
But China is speeding up development of a slew of new weapons, such as the H-20 bomber and hypersonic missiles, beefing up the number of nuclear warheads and trialling new tactics, the ministry said.
China, which views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military and political pressure over the past five years to assert its claims, which Taipei strongly rejects.
The report added China could increase the inspection of foreign cargo ships as a way of cutting off Taiwan’s communication with the outside world.
When China staged war games around Taiwan shortly after Lai Ching-te took office as president in May, Chinese coast guard ships were sent on interception and inspection drills off the east coast for the first time, according to the report.
China’s aim was to practice cutting off communication with the outside world and blockading Taiwan, the defence ministry said – and boarding foreign cargo ships is an option China could take that is short of open conflict.
The waters around Taiwan, including the Taiwan Strait, are busy international shipping lanes.
China’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a regular news briefing in Beijing on Thursday, the ministry said that as long as Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party “engages in Taiwan independence [efforts], there will be no peace”.
“The more they provoke, the faster they will perish,” spokesperson Wu Qian told reporters.
Taiwan’s proposed defence spending will rise faster than the economy will grow next year, as Taipei builds more missiles, submarines and other weapons to deter China.
President Lai, whom China calls a “separatist”, has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing, but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
“Peace achieved by strength is true peace,” Mr Lai told officers at the defence ministry on Friday.
“We will continue to improve our self-defence capabilities and show the world that we are united as a nation and are determined to protect our country.”
On Monday, Taiwan ran drills with anti-amphibious landing missiles as part of a strategy to deter an attack from China.
Troops fired wire-guided missiles, known as TOW 2As, mounted on M1167 Humvees at floating targets off a beach in Pingtung County.
