China aims new missile types at Taiwan, NSB says

DANGER:：The DF-16 ballistic missile not only poses a threat to Taiwan, but could also be used to strike US military bases on Guam and Okinawa

A top national security official yesterday said China had begun deploying a new long-range ballistic missile aimed at Taiwan, adding that the missile’s destructive capacity went beyond that of the current missiles in China’s arsenal.

National Security Bureau (NSB) Director Tsai Der-sheng (蔡得勝) told the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee that in addition to deploying the Dong Feng-16 (DF-16), the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was also now fielding the DF-21, also known as the “aircraft carrier killer,” which could put any US Navy vessels coming to Taiwan’s assistance at great risk.

Asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) whether the DF-16 was a completely new type of missile or a derivative of earlier Dong Feng types, Tsai said it was a whole new type.

“It’s more powerful, advanced and has a greater range than older types of Dong Feng missiles,” he said.

Tsai said that while the DF-16 targeted Taiwan, it could also be used against other countries in the region. Those comments echoed a recent report by the non-profit global policy think tank Rand Corp on the Chinese ballistic missile threat, which listed Okinawa and Guam as potential targets. Both are home to large US military bases.

Testing of the DF-16 has been completed and the missile has been deployed, he said.

At present, China’s main arsenal threatening Taiwan consists of DF-11 and DF-15 short-range ballistic missiles based in Southeast China, with a range of 300km and 800km respectively.

Asked to comment on the possibility of the new deployment, Wendell Minnick, Asia Bureau chief for Defense News, said he suspected the DF-16 may be a DF-15 with extended range, adding that he found it very hard to believe that the US would not have noticed such a deployment.

Turning to the DF-21, Lin said he was surprised to hear Tsai claim the DF-21 had been deployed.

Western countries have assessed that the PLA would need at least a decade before it could deploy the DF-21, because the technology required to hit a moving target at sea represents a substantial challenge, Lin said, adding that he was not aware of the DF-21 having been tested.

Tsai said that while Western countries relied on surveillance satellites to gather information on China’s weapons development, the bureau had a long-term focus on the development of human intelligence — that is, spies — to gather information.

US defense analysts estimate the DF-21 has a range of between 1,995km and 2,993km. Many commentators have called it a potential “game changer” that could threaten the US carrier fleet’s supremacy in the Pacific, a contention that remains disputed.

I appreciate your take on it. China needs to know that the rest of the world sees it’s blind ambition for what it is.

China has plenty of land mass. It’s doing just fine. It doesn’t need Taiwan for anything other than a self-imposed face saving move. China should not be going postal over Taiwan. Taiwan has been independent since the 1950s. Where was the Communist government of China all that time?

Now China has been shooting it’s mouth off for the last decade and a half, and they can’t afford to back down. It’s all about the face, the mainland made itself look like an ass over.

Taiwan formerly Formosa has been removed from China throughout history. The main reason why China today want’s Taiwan is because Taiwan was the place the old leadership fled to during the revolution. The commies haven’t been able to live that down since.

Taiwan is a progressive astute international business climate nation that has nothing to do with the mainland. It’s separate. It has had a separate government since the 1950s. Formosa wasn’t a part of China. It was independent through the early 1900s.

Frankly, I bristle at the idea that Taiwan is under threat of destruction by the mainland. China has a lot of nerve building up it’s armaments across the straits from it. This is 1930s Germany all over again. The equivalent of the NAZIs of Europe are now running China.

The NAZIs demanded Austria, then Poland... then WWII.

What’s China’s goal here, the Spratleys, Hong Kong, Taiwan, then WWIII?

China thinks it was turned the clock forward to 2050. Instead it has turned the clock back to 1938.

China’s blind ambition knows no bounds. It is the current global bully on the Asian block, and plans to be the scourge of the whole planet in ten to fifteen years.

Heard of the Spratley Islands? Those islands are in dispute between the Philippines, Vietnam, and of course good old China. So what did China do? Did it go to an international tribunal and try to work something out? No.

China built a military base there, making it quite clear that it was prepared to use military force to take the islands all for itself.

This was not only an open act of aggression, it was a strategic move intended to build a choke point for ships of other nations wishing to transition to the Indian Ocean.

China is headed for war. If that’s what it wants, I say bring it on right now. There’s nothing to be gained by waiting for the inevitable.

Nations like WWII Germany and China, don’t learn until their leadership is erased from the map. Since China has made the fateful choice to go down that road, we just as well do it now before it can take the planet with it.

China cares nothing about it’s people. They are useful pawns right now, but when it’s military is built up to it’s desired strength, the leadership will gladly expend upwards of 75% of them, as it decimates other nations in the process, it’s goal to wind up the premier nation after a global conflict.

Can’t wait to see what magic it would work then.

No, people outside China have it pegged rather accurately. China’s leadership is just too stupid to realize it. It’s also too stupid to see that it’s leadership will wind up like Hitler’s. Sadly it will take a lot of wonderful Chinese people with it, along with tens of millions of people from other nations. That’s the real shame.

China’s main cities still wind up as cinders.

So Phoebe, I’m sorry to have to be the one to lay this out for you. The government of China is a psycho organization. It has been since it’s inception, killing off 50 million of it’s own people to gain and maintain power.

Fifty to sixty years ago when the United States was busily saving everyone’s ass from Europe to China, players in your nation were plotting how to take control from it’s then leaders.

What makes the current leadership there any more deserving of Tiawan than the Chinese citizens that fled there? Those people are the only remnants of China’s leadership not killed during the purification.

Fifty million of your fellow citizen died during that purge. Perhaps that’s what you think makes your leaders qualified to take over Taiwan. Perhaps then they can finish the job they started by slaughtering Chinese citizens.

My nation has military bases around the world to protect people from nations like your own. For instance, when it’s buddies in Korea tried the communist blueprint, people in the South would have none of it.

Only after the U. S. coming to it’s rescue, did the South become safe from communist aggression. China fought with the North then. It has revealed itself for what it is, a number of times.

Don’t lecture me about my nation’s actions that have brought a relative stable peace to the world for the last 60 years.

I suppose you think we should kill off a few tens of millions of our own citizens to become a top rank nation, to be respected like China.

Ah, as appealing as it sounds, no thanks.

You make me laugh, several times.

From whom are you(American soldiers overseas) trying to save? Did Chinese military force ever step onto Japanese islands, even if we(Chinese) were fighting ww2 with them(Japanese) back then? Did you set military bases in those countries out of their safety concern, or for your own military purpose? God knows, and you know it too.

Yes, you did make contribution to world peace in recent history. We thank you for that. But you also triggered wars. Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Does this list ring a bell to you? And pleaaaaaaase, don’t tell me that you do those things for their safety, freedom, human rights, and blah blah blah. I’m not gonna buy it.

And what makes you think that I agree with Chinese leaders’ logic that we possess Taiwan? Did I retort your statements regarding the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan in this thread? You are a mindreader or something? If you are, then I am not paying ya, because you had the wrong reading.

PS: word of advice, next time you run into an everyday Chinese, ask them if they are on Chinese government’s side on Taiwan issue first, before pouring your hatred and disgust on them.

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