Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) has test-fired a new long-range cruise missile capable of reaching deep into the Chinese mainland, according to reports in the island’s media.
The NCSIST, a state-owned military R&D firm, is believed to have test-fired an extended-range version of the Hsiung Sheng cruise missile from its base in Jiupeng, on the island’s southern coast.
According to reports, the new surface-to-surface missile has a maximum range of 1,200 kilometers (746 miles), enabling it to strike as deep into mainland China as Wuhan and Changsha. It could also strike the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fleet bases in Qingdao in the north and Sanya in the south, if fired from Taiwan.
It’s not known if the missiles fired on Tuesday morning were the extended-range Hsiung Sheng (Brave Wind) missile, and if so, what additional properties the weapon has, such as speed, warhead size or overall weight. The original weapon carried a 450-kilogram (1,000-pound) warhead, weighed about 1,500–1,600 kilograms (3,300–3,500 pounds), and flew at high subsonic speed of about Mach 0.75 – Mach 0.85.
According to reports, the original Hsiung Sheng missile also has the ability to descend to low altitude as it enters enemy territory, then “pop up” just before it strikes its target, to land on it from above. The missile is fired from a truck-mounted transporter-erector-launcher.
This is just the latest in a series of cruise missiles and surface strike missiles developed or purchased by the Taiwanese government in recent years. That includes Tomahawk and JASSM-ER cruise missiles bought from the United States, and the extended-range Yu Feng (Cloud Peak) supersonic cruise missile program, which Taipei has claimed can strike the Chinese capital of Beijing.
Taipei’s possession of such offensive weapons has been criticized by analysts as inappropriate, given its claims to have a purely defensive armed force.
The Taipei government is all that remains of the former Republic of China, which ruled all of the China from 1912 until 1949. The triumph of the socialist revolution and foundation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing in 1949 saw the republican forces retreat to Taiwan, where they survived with the help of foreign capitalist governments, especially the United States. In the decades since, all but a handful of small states have switched their recognition of the legitimate Chinese government from Taipei to Beijing, including the US.
Beijing regards Taiwan as a Chinese province in rebellion, and sees US support for the government in Taipei as interference in internal Chinese affairs. It has pledged to politically reunite Taiwan with the mainland, completing the process of reversing foreign attempts at dismantling China. Securing the peaceful return of Hong Kong and Macao from British and Portuguese rule, respectively, in the 1990s was part of the same process, and Beijing has offered Taipei a similar “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement to preserve its unique political and economic system as part of China.