The submarines will use a combat system by US defence company Lockheed Martin Corp and carry US-made torpedoes.
Admiral Huang Shu-kuang, Ms Tsai’s security adviser, described the submarines as a “strategic deterrent” that could also help maintain the island’s “lifeline” to the Pacific by keeping ports along Taiwan’s eastern coast open.
China openly ridiculed Taiwanese hopes for what the submarines could do to defend the island.
“No matter how many weapons the Democratic Progressive Party buys, it will not obstruct the greater trend of reunification with the motherland,” said Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesperson in China’s Ministry of National Defense.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
China which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has made the program a key part of an ambitious project to modernise its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises to assert its sovereignty.
Admiral Huang Shu-kuang, Ms Tsai’s security adviser, described the submarines as a “strategic deterrent” that could also help maintain the island’s “lifeline” to the Pacific by keeping ports along Taiwan’s eastern coast open.
“No matter how many weapons the Democratic Progressive Party buys, it will not obstruct the greater trend of reunification with the motherland,” said Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesperson in China’s Ministry of National Defense.
Mr Li, who has been in the role for just half a year, went missing from public view about a month ago, leading to speculation he may be under investigation for corruption.
“I’m not aware of the situation you mentioned,” Colonel Wu said in response to a question from a foreign news outlet about whether General Li is still the country’s defence minister.
The American ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, tweeted earlier this month that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Cabinet lineup “is now resembling Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None”.
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