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China doubled number of missiles targeting Taiwan since 2002
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Special to World Tribune.com
EAST-ASIA-INTEL.COM
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
China has deployed some 980 missiles opposite Taiwan capable of hitting targets throughout the island, the Taiwan defense ministry said last week.
Maj. Gen. Wang Cheng-hsiao, an MND intelligence official, told reporters that China had 190 ballistic missiles in 1996, a number that has increased by 50 annually to reach 540 in 2003.
Since then China has stepped up production and improved the capabilities of the missiles, noting that 880 strategic ballistic missiles and more than 100 cruise missiles currently are deployed.
Maj. Gen. Ke Hsi-hsiung, deputy director of the MND's Integrated Assessment Office, stated that China's missiles are not as precise as initially estimated.
Taiwan's military intelligence believes that if China attacked with 70 percent of its missiles, Taiwan would retain more than 50 percent of its combat capacity. Ke added that the figure could rise to more than 70 percent if measures to protect combat capacity were taken. He did not elaborate.
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