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Home The News News New Chinese subs raise questions

New Chinese subs raise questions

Recent media interest about new types of submarines being developed by the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) could provide important clues about China’s naval capabilities and intentions, a specialist on China said in a recent article.

“Whereas the development and deployment of the Chinese navy’s surface fleet have been prominently displayed in unprecedented scale in recent naval exercises both in the South and East China Sea, the expansion of China’s subsurface fleet appears to have been slowed in recent years,” Russell Hsiao, editor of the China Brief, a publication of the US-based Jamestown Foundation, wrote in the publication’s latest edition.

From 2007 until this year, he said, the total number of submarines deployed in the PLAN was steady, rising by a single vessel, to 63, Hsiao wrote.

While the scope of the PLAN’s development remained to be seen and would depend on tested capabilities rather than media photos and speculation, the increased incidence of reports on new submarines could nevertheless provided important clues about Beijing’s strategic outlook, he said.

“In this context, these reports raise interesting questions about what is known regarding the pace of investments that China has undertaken to increase stealth, missile capacity, survivability and the capability to project its submarine force both regionally and globally,” he wrote.

Early last month, a Hong Kong-based media ran a story based on a photo of a new conventionally powered attack submarine that had been circulating on the Web for several weeks. The SSK submarine was allegedly developed by state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, China’s largest shipbuilder, the report said.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has yet to officially acknowledge reports that the new submarine has stealth capabilities.

“Chinese academic engineering literature cited by a prominent Western defense magazine supports the fact ‘that the PLA has also been researching fuel cell AIP engine technology — with the PLA having benefited via Chinese academics from several conferences with German fuel cell technology experts,” the report said, citing Jane’s Defense Weekly.


Source: Taipei Times - 2010/10/25



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Newsflash

The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations.

One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement.

The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in the UN or related organizations.