‘Kills tens of millions’: Taiwan’s chilling message for China

Beijing has claimed Taiwan is “dreaming” if it thinks it can defend itself, but the island of 23 million may not be as helpless as they think.

After the shock of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there are deep concerns about what China will do when it comes to the issue of Taiwan.

The superpower has long sought to “unify” Taiwan – which has been governed independently since 1949 – with the mainland, with the Chinese Communist Party vowing to “fight to the very end” to stop Taiwanese independence.

When a nation has a military the size of China’s, the ongoing threats become an increasingly worrying prospect for the 23 million people who live on the island.

Some in Taiwan are taking shooting lessons for the first time in their lives as Russia’s invasion ratchets up anxiety at the prospect of giant neighbour China making a similar move.

Despite the steps taken by locals, China has claimed that Taiwan has no chance against the raw power of its People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Chinese state media reported the US is expected this week to begin annual high-level military security talks, known as the “Monterey Talks”, with a delegation from the Taiwan authorities. It is understood Washington is expected to list about 20 weapons for sale to the island, with emphasis on building “asymmetric capability”.

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Locals in Taiwan are seeking gun training amid concerns of possible military action from mainland China. Picture: Annabelle Chih/Getty Images

In a seething piece, China’s People’s Daily said Taiwan was dreaming if it thought these “useless” weapons would keep it safe from the PLA.

“Military expert Song Zhongping said it is impossible for Taiwan to form ‘asymmetric capabilities,’ no matter what kind of weapons it purchases from the US as the gap between the military capacities of the two sides is ‘too huge’,” it reported.

“Chinese analysts commented that it is very much daydreaming for the secessionist forces on the island to even think about containing the PLA’s military operations no matter what kind of US arms they obtain, as the so-called asymmetric weapons are useless when facing the PLA’s absolute advantages.”

However, Taiwan may not be as helpless as China makes out when it comes to defending itself.

Taiwanese weapon could kill ‘tens of millions’

Columnist, author, and lawyer Gordon G. Chang, in a report for the Gatestone Institute, said that Taiwan has the ability to kill “tens of millions” of Chinese people if it is provoked.

In the report he said that, according to Chinese media, Taiwan has already told China to “consider Taiwan’s existing capacity to strike Beijing” and that China “should think twice” before attacking the island.

Mr Chang says that central to this threat is Taiwan’s Yun Feng cruise missile and its ability to strike targets that would inflict unholy devastation on the mainland.

“The range has never been publicly confirmed, but analysts believe it to be about 2000km sufficient to reach both the Chinese capital and the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest flood-control structure,” he said.

Taiwan has warned it could hit China’s Three Gorges Dam. Picture: STR/AFP/China OUT

“China’s dam creates a reservoir of 39.3 billion cubic meters of water on the Yangtze River and is upstream from about 400 million people.

“Almost 30 per cent of China’s population, therefore, is at risk of a catastrophic failure of the structure, such as one caused by a missile strike. That means Taiwan possesses a conventional weapon that packs the wallop of a nuclear one.”

However, that alone may not be enough to deter China.

Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center told Gatestone that China now has significant superiority over Taiwan in terms of total combat aircraft and warships. “The People’s Liberation Army can call on thousands of civilian barges and about 4000 Boeing and Airbus airliners to transport the bulk of its invasion and occupation force to Taiwan,” he said.

Mr Chang said the solution to deterring China is thousands of missiles for Taiwan, perhaps tens of thousands of them.

“Taiwan’s Yun Feng production rate has never been publicly confirmed, but it is clear that the island republic does not now possess a sufficient number of them,” he said. “Now, the United States needs to help Taiwan improve the speed and range of its missiles and, of course, increase the number of them.”

It is not known how many missiles Taiwan has. Picture: Handout/ISPR/AFP

Taiwan infuriates China with talks

This all comes as China is fired up over the first round of trade talks between US and Taiwanese officials this week.

Deputy US Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi and Taiwan’s top trade negotiator John Deng held the inaugural meeting of the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade which aims to deepen ties between the two economies.

“This initiative will unlock market opportunities, promote innovation and create inclusive economic growth for our workers and businesses,” Bianchi said in a statement.

Washington has said the scope of the talks is limited and in keeping with the “unofficial” relationship with Taipei.

But Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and tries to keep it isolated on the world stage, bristling at any attempt to treat the self-governing democracy as an independent nation.

“China always opposes any form of official exchanges between any country and the Taiwan region of China, including negotiating and signing any economic and trade agreements with sovereign connotations and an official nature,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said early this month when the plan was announced.

The initiative came in the wake of an agreement President Joe Biden announced with 12 Asian economies, which excluded Taiwan.

China is not happy about Taiwan’s talks with the US. Picture: CCTV/AFP

Like that effort, the discussions with Taipei will not involve tariffs or market access – items that would require congressional approval.

In the first meeting, the officials discussed the development of an “ambitious road map for negotiations … to reach agreements with high-standard commitments and economically meaningful outcomes,” the statement said.

Taiwan is the 10th largest export market for the United States, as well as a vital source of semiconductors.

A global shortage of the chips is hitting industries that rely on them from cars to smartphones, and pushing inflation higher.

The officials met with legislators and business executives to discuss the opportunities, and talks with cover areas, including regulatory practices, agriculture, digital trade, labour, and environmental standards.

The next meeting is planned for “the near future”, USTR said. China has tried to stop any international recognition for the island, opposing its participation in global discussions.

But Mr Biden is under pressure to deepen ties with Taiwan after a bipartisan group of 52 senators urged him to include the island in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) launched in late May, which includes about 40 per cent of the global economy.

– With AFP