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Taiwan to unveil first domestically built submarine

Taiwan unveils its first homegrown submarine, aiming to bolster defenses against China amidst increasing military and political pressure. China claims Taiwan as its territory, intensifying tensions.

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12 months ago

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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Taiwan will unveil its first domestically built submarine on Thursday, with the massively outgunned island seeking to bolster its defences against China.

China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, and has in the past year stepped up military and political pressure, ramping up the number of warplane incursions around the island while diplomatically isolating it.

Taiwan has increased defence spending — allotting a record US$19 billion for 2024 — to acquire military equipment, particularly from its key ally the United States, but its quest to obtain a submarine has faced obstacles.

President Tsai Ing-wen — strongly opposed by Beijing for her refusal to accept China’s authority over the island — launched a submarine programme in 2016 with the aim of delivering a fleet of eight vessels.

Construction on the first started in 2020 by the island’s CSBC Corporation, a company specialising in container ships and military vessels, and it will be unveiled by Tsai in the southern port city of Kaohsiung.

Carrying a price tag of US$1.5 billion, the submarine’s displacement weight is about 2,500 to 3,000 tons, with its combat systems and torpedoes sourced from the US defence company Lockheed Martin.

“The submarine will have a fairly significant impact on Taiwan’s defence strategy,” said Ben Lewis, a US-based independent analyst who focuses on the Chinese military’s movements around the island.

“The biggest risk is to the PLA’s (People’s Liberation Army’s) amphibious assault and troop transport capabilities,” he told AFP, referring to China’s military.

“They have practised extensively the use of civilian vessels to augment their existing troop delivery platforms, and a submarine could wreak havoc on vessels not designed for naval warfare.”

The submarine will still need at least three years to become operational, said Zivon Wang, a military analyst at Taipei-based think tank the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies.

“The launch… does not mean that Taiwan will become very powerful right away but it is a crucial element of Taiwan’s defence strategy and a part of our efforts to build deterrence capabilities.”

China’s state-run Global Times on Monday published an op-ed saying Taiwan’s submarine deployment plan to block the PLA was “daydreaming”.

“The plan is just an illusion of the island attempting to resist reunification by force,” it said.

Last week, China flew 103 warplanes around Taiwan, which the island’s defence ministry said was among the highest in recently recorded incursions, decrying the “destructive unilateral actions”.

Beijing has also sent reconnaissance drones to the eastern side of Taiwan — a move that analysts have said could spell trouble for the island’s military bases there.

— AFP

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China’s Evergrande Group halts trading in Hong Kong

China Evergrande suspends stock trading in Hong Kong as financial woes escalate. Its debt crisis and missed bond payments add to China’s property sector turmoil and raise global concerns.

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12 months ago

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28 September 2023

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HONG KONG, CHINA — Beleaguered property giant China Evergrande suspended trading of its shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday, according to notices posted by the bourse, as the debt-ridden company grapples with severe financial difficulties.

Trading in its two other units — the firm’s property services and electric vehicle groups — also stopped at 9:00 am local time (0100 GMT), according to the notices.

The three entities had a combined market value of 16.7 billion HK dollars (US$2.1 billion) on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.

Evergrande only just resumed trading a month ago, after the company was suspended for 17 months for not publishing its financial results.

The halt in trading comes a day after a Bloomberg report that Evergrande’s billionaire boss Xu Jiayin was being held by police under “residential surveillance”.

On Sunday, the firm said it was unable to issue new debt as its subsidiary, Hengda Real Estate Group, was being investigated.

And last Friday it said meetings planned this week on a key debt restructuring plan would not take place.

The firm said it was “necessary to reassess the terms” of the plan in order to suit the “objective situation and the demand of the creditors”.

Evergrande’s enormous debt  — the firm estimated it at US$328 billion at the end of June — has contributed to the country’s deepening property sector crisis, raising fears of a global spillover.

The company’s property arm this week missed a key bond payment, and Chinese financial website Caixin reported that former executives at the firm had been detained.

That crisis has deepened a broader slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy, with youth unemployment at record highs.

The government has set an economic growth target of around five percent for this year, which would represent one of its worst performances in decades, excluding the period of the pandemic.

Massive debt

China’s property sector has long been a key pillar of growth — along with construction it accounts for about a quarter of GDP — and it experienced a dazzling boom in recent decades.

The massive debt accrued by the industry’s biggest players has, however, been seen by Beijing in recent years as an unacceptable risk for the financial system and overall economic health.

Authorities have gradually tightened developers’ access to credit since 2020, and a wave of defaults has followed — notably that of Evergrande.

The now long-running housing crisis has wreaked misery on the lives of homebuyers across the country, who have often staked life savings on properties that never materialised.

A wave of mortgage boycotts spread nationwide last summer, as cash-strapped developers struggled to raise enough to complete homes they had already sold in advance — a common practice in China.

Earlier this month, authorities in the southern city of Shenzhen said they had arrested several Evergrande employees, also calling on the public to report any cases of suspected fraud.

Another Chinese property giant, Country Garden, narrowly avoided default in recent months, after reporting a record loss and debts of more than US$150 billion.

— AFP

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Olympic champions Chopra, Barshim primed for Asian Games glory

Neeraj Chopra, Olympic and world javelin champion, gears up to defend his Asian Games title, emphasizing mental readiness for the competition despite a challenging season.

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12 months ago

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27 September 2023

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HANGZHOU, CHINA — Olympic and world javelin champion Neeraj Chopra says mind and body are primed to defend his Asian Games title when the athletics starts in Hangzhou on Friday at the end of a gruelling season.

The Indian spearheads a handful of top-class track and field stars competing across seven days at the “Big Lotus” Olympic stadium, which has a capacity of up to 80,000.

Among them is fellow Olympic gold medallist and three-time world high-jump champion Mutaz Essa Barshim.

Chopra is expected to dominate the javelin after a strong season that saw him secure gold at the world championships at Budapest in August.

He also won the Doha and Lausanne legs of the Diamond League series, but suffered a rare setback this month when he was beaten by the Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch in Eugene.

“I still have one more competition, the Asian Games,” he said after Eugene.

“In big competitions, I think it’s about mindset, in big competitions we don’t need to prepare ourselves. When we enter the stadium, our mind is ready and the body is also ready for the competition.”

He will face stiff opposition from Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who took silver at the worlds behind his Indian rival on his comeback from elbow surgery and a knee injury.

Fellow Indian Kishore Kumar Jena, who was fifth in Budapest, will also be vying for the medals.

A total of 48 gold are at stake in track and field in Hangzhou, with Qatar’s Barshim an overwhelming favourite to win his third Asian Games title after successes in 2010 and 2014.

He has motivation to get back on top of a podium after being shocked at the world championships by Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi, who denied him a fourth consecutive title.

Barshim is the Asian record holder and also owns the second-highest jump in history at 2.43 metres.

Special

His chief rival is set to be South Korea’s Woo Sang-hyeok, the 2022 world championship silver medallist and 2018 Asian Games runner-up.

Woo took out the Diamond League trophy in Eugene with a personal best of 2.35m, but Barshim wasn’t there.

Hosts China have been a dominant force in track and field at the Asian Games and are bolstered by the likes of veteran Olympic women’s shot putt champion Gong Lijiao and women’s Olympic javelin gold medallist Liu Shiying.

“I hope I can win gold again in Hangzhou, which will be my fourth time competing at the Asian Games,” said Gong, who will be looking for a throw of 21.00m to get her over the line.

“This time it’s special as it’s a home event.”

In other events, the Philippines’ EJ Obiena is one to watch in the men’s pole vault after equalling his own Asian record of 6.00m in Budapest to claim world championship silver behind Swedish world record-holder Armand Duplantis.

China’s 2022 world championship gold medallist Wang Jianan will start as favourite in the men’s long jump.

— AFP

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