from:www.forbes.com/finance/feeds/afx/2006/01/08/afx2435112.html

Taiwan has produced three prototypes of cruise missile - Jane's
01.08.2006, 05:58 AM


TAIPEI (AFX) - Taiwan has produced three prototypes of a new cruise missile which could be used to strike the east coast of rival China, Jane's Defence Weekly said.

The cruise missile, called Hsiung Feng 2E (Brave Wind), 'will be deployed on mobile land-based platforms and initial plans are for the production of up to 50 missiles before 2010 and up to 500 missiles after 2010,' Jane's Defence Weekly said in an article to be published Jan 11.

With a range exceeding 600 kilometers, the missile will be able to attack targets along the east coast of the Chinese mainland, it quoted a defense source as saying.

'If deployed on Penghu Island in the south or Tungyin Island in the north, it could strike as far south as Hong Kong and as far north as Shanghai,' the source said.

The defence ministry declined to comment on the report.

Taiwan's military-run Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the developer of the cruise missile, is planning to extend its range to 1,000 kilometers, the weekly said.

But 'this would require the acquisition of specialized engine components from the US that Washington has so far refused to allow, perhaps linked to provisions under the Missile Technology Control Regime,' Jane's said.

The Chungshan Institute is also working on a short-range ballistic missile based on the Tien Kung (Sky Bow) air-defence missile system, the weekly said.

The ballistic missile and cruise missile are integral to Taiwan's 'active defence' policy, which aims to counter any aggression before it reaches Taiwanese territory, it said.

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This was definately coming. Especially since the Chicoms have over 700 missiles targetting Taiwan.

Taiwan has a window of vulnerability until after 2010. But not just because of Cruise Missile Production.

we need to arrange for them to have some nuclear warhead technology next

Both Taiwan and South Korea at one time did have a Nuclear Weapons Program.
At the Time the United States used a lot of pressure to force both nations to abandon their programs.

I believe that one of the triggers codified in China's recently passed Law on requiring the use of  Military Force against Taiwan , is if Taiwan develops Nukes.

A late Taiwanese Mechanical Engineer, a father of one of my friends, we had some discussion in 1996, when the US 7th fleet was sent in by Clinton after china lobbed missiles over Taiwan....and he said that while at the National Science Inst, or something to that effect, they had computer models, or simulators (?) of nuclear detonations, and yields to test nuclear weapons.....that they got from the US.

I thinkt they're in the same position as Japan, in that they can go nuclear, in a matter of time.

I wouldn't doubt if there are some nukes stateside, as there were deployed nukes in Taiwan for a time being.