Taiwan-China War: With the prospect of a conflict or a limited war between Taiwan and China increasing every day, political analysts believe that Taiwan would have the capability to hit Beijing and Shanghai using the deadly ‘Yun Feng’ missiles and incapacitate the invader.
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Even though many experts believe that the Republic of China with US support would fall quickly in the face of a Chinese onslaught, the reality is far from it. At Taiwan’s disposal is a growing arsenal of long-range, supersonic cruise missiles, including the deadly Yun Feng missile, writes David Axe for the Forbes.
The Yun Feng was developed by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology and can travel as far as a thousand miles with a 500-pound warhead, thus enabling it to bomb Shanghai and Beijing. The Yun Feng is supersonic thanks to its combined-cycle propulsion. A solid rocket booster accelerates the missile to its cruise speed, at which point an air-fed ramjet takes over.
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In fielding Yun Feng missiles, Taiwan conveys to Beijing that a war would not be confined to the island and surrounding waters,” explained the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
The Yun Feng would allow Taiwan to inflict costs on China, both by striking People’s Liberation Army targets and by bringing the war to mainland China. With this in mind, Beijing is likely to think twice before attacking Taiwan, the experts noted.
As reported by EurAsian Times earlier, China considers Taiwan a ‘renegade’ province and has vowed to seize it back one day, by force if necessary. The nationalist forces lost the civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists and escaped to Taiwan in 1949.
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Chinese ambitions to ‘seize’ Taiwan have been on display during the last three-four months with Beijing conducting maritime drills and night-time air patrols off the coast of Taiwan. In response, Taipei has also conducted drills while allies like the US have beefed up maritime patrols and performed mock drills.
Before Chinese advancement in military technology, Taiwan matched China using the plane for plane and ship for ship strategy. But, China’s rise as a military superpower has forced Taiwan to alter its strategy to deter China.
Taiwan-China War – Change in Strategy
After Taiwan realised it cannot match China using the old strategy i.e. machine for a machine, it was quick to alter its policy. The Taiwanese military now plans to let the Chinese get close—then lob thousands of missiles at them. Taiwan’s objectives are to deter and delay potential invasion, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Threat Initiative.
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The island nation has no dearth of missiles. The missile arsenal includes Stinger, Chaparral, Patriot, Tien Chien and Tien Kung surface-to-air missiles; Javelin, TOW and Hellfire anti-tank missiles; and Harpoon and Hsiung Feng anti-ship missiles.
The missiles mentioned above are defensive in nature. For hitting back at China, Taiwan fields Wan Chien air-launched cruise missiles and Yun Feng ground-launched cruise missiles.
While theoretically, the Chinese PLA could attempt to defend against barrages of Yun Fengs by positioning surface-to-air missile batteries around the most important bases and by suppressing Taiwanese missile units on the ground, there is no guarantee the missile-defence will work.
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Additionally, it is particularly difficult to destroy small, mobile launch units when they’re under concealment. During wartime, Taiwan probably would be able to launch most of its Yun Fengs. And most of those would hit their targets.
Taiwan’s decision to alter its military strategy shows its preparedness. Chinese invasion has always been risky but the presence of Yun Feng capable of hitting the heart of China will definitely make Beijing think twice.
