Taiwan Strait to Become "Internal Sea of China"

That according to Taiwanese Vice Defense Minister Ko Chen-heng as reported by Defense News. Ko made the statement while offering what is described as a rare public comment on a new land-attack cruise missile. The missile, he said, was developed by the Taiwanese for the express purpose of "allow[ing] time for U.S. forces to arrive to protect Taiwan from a Chinese attack."

"Since China lacks capability to cruise across the Taiwan Strait for a landing operation, China intends to fire missiles in the political and economic nerve centers of Taiwan to cause social paralysis, thereby forcing the U.S. to surrender."

Ko said China is also working to turn the Taiwan Strait into an "internal sea of China."

Militarily, this means building an aircraft carrier by 2015 and several more by 2020, and increasing submarine patrols in the area. But this also includes efforts to redefine the internationally recognized air defense identification zone to include what is now Taiwanese airspace. Ko said Chinese military aircraft are crossing the centerline of the Taiwan Strait more often - five or six times a year, up from once or twice annually in the late 1990s.

One should take such "rare" public comments with a grain of salt, but the message is clear. The Taiwanese are scared of China, they doubt the deterrent value of their current arsenal, and their only strategy in the event of attack is to wait until the U.S. Navy arrives. The reason? As the article notes, in 2005 U.S. officials denied Taiwanese "requests for Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) and AGM-88C High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles."Then in 2007, "U.S. officials declined four times . . . to accept Taiwan's letter of request for price and availability for 66 F-16s." And now there are "indications that the U.S. government has been pressuring Taiwan to halt" production of this indigenous cruise missile system.

As far as the bit about the carriers, last year the South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh reported that China was "pushing ahead with construction of a mega-sized nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be completed in 2020." This in addition to construction of a conventionally powered carrier.

If the Bush administration intends to restore and safeguard the balance of power in the Strait, it's running out of time, and it's moving in the wrong direction.

The Russian carrier Varyag, which is being refitted in the port of Dalian by the Chinese.
When the Chinese bought the ship from the Ukraine, they claimed it would be used in Macau as a floating casino.