China Criticizes The Construction Of Taiwan's Defense Submarine

JAKARTA - Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning criticized the construction of Taiwan's defense submarine and said the move was a waste of people's tax money.

"The DPP (Pregressive Democratic Party) authority stubbornly sticks to separatist positions for the sake of 'Taiwan independence', wasting money from the efforts of the Taiwanese people," said Mao Ning when delivering the statement as reported by ANTARA, Friday, September 29.

Taiwan on Thursday (28/9) launched its first domestically-made defense submarine called "Narwhal" or also known as "Hi Kun", in the port city of Kaohsiung. Narwhal or Hai Kun in Mandarin means "sea monster."

The submarine was called by Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen as a milestone in "defense independence" amid tensions across the strait.

"This seeks to create antagonism and confrontation in the Taiwan Strait, which will only undermine peace and stability across the Strait," added Mao Ning.

Mao Ning also emphasized that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China's territory.

"Reunification on both sides of the Taiwan Strait must and will be realized," said Mao Ning.

The ship will be tested at sea starting October 2023 and is expected to be delivered to the navy by the end of 2024, according to local media reports.

Tsai said submarines are critical to Taiwan's navy in terms of strategies and tactics to develop "asymmetric combat forces".

Since Tsai took office in May 2016, he has been pushing for policies to design and manufacture military aircraft, ships, and submarines.

The Taiwan submarine project was launched in 2017 and made a major breakthrough in 2018 when the United States State Department allowed American defense equipment manufacturers to sell submarine technology to Taiwan.

The Narwhal submarine produced by Taiwanese shipbuilder CSBC Corp has a length of about 70 meters in the 2,500-3,000 tonne class. The budget of $49.3 billion has been allocated for the first submarine.

Taiwan wants to build another submarine in 2027 itself. This means that the island will have a total of three combat-ready submarines by 2025 and four submarines by 2027, including two Chien Lung-class submarines purchased from the Netherlands in the 1980s.