Taiwanese defence minister said on Tuesday that they have a “grasp” of the situation after pictures appeared online of a Chinese nuclear submarine surfacing in the sensitive Taiwan Strait near Taiwanese fishermen.
The narrow strait that separates Taiwan from China is a frequent source of tension. Taiwan reports Chinese warplanes and warships operating there on a daily basis, as Beijing seeks to assert its sovereignty claims against the democratically governed island.
Taiwanese media published the pictures of the surfaced craft, which appears to be a nuclear-armed Jin class ballistic missile submarine, taken by a Taiwanese fishing boat in the strait as dawn broke on Tuesday, about 200 km (125 miles) from Taiwan’s western coast.
Asked about the submarine, Taiwan defence minister Wellington Koo said they have a “grasp” of the intelligence situation, but declined to say how they were monitoring it or give details.
China’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Military experts say that strategic waters off southwest shores of Taiwan where mostly shallow waters drop into depth making them suitable ground for submarines’ ambushes are major military hotspots including China, US and Taiwan operating in these areas.
Nonetheless, it is important to note that ballistic missile submarines are not designed to attack ships, but rather launch ballistic missiles at targets on land.
Taiwan’s fleet of P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircrafts based at Pingtung air base in southern Taiwan give easy access to southern part of the strait.
China has been employing alleged grey zone warfare tactics designed at wearing down an enemy without engaging directly in open combat such as flying surveillance balloons over the island nation according to complaints made by Taiwan.
According to Koo “We must always understand China’s constant salami-slicing attempts to unilaterally change the status quo … We must be fully alive every time … [and] calmly deal with such situations.”
Additionally, Taiwan has detected 20 Chinese military planes and seven vessels around the island in the past 24 hours, Taiwan’s defence ministry said in its daily report on Chinese military activities on Tuesday morning.
