By Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s defense minister said on Tuesday he has an “understanding” of the situation after photos appeared online of a Chinese nuclear submarine surfacing in the sensitive Taiwan Strait, close to Taiwanese fishermen.
The strait separating Taiwan from China is a frequent source of tension. Taiwan reports Chinese warplanes and warships operating there daily as Beijing seeks to assert its sovereignty claims against the democratically ruled island.
Taiwanese media published photos of the surfaced vessel, which appears to be a nuclear-armed Jin-class ballistic missile submarine, taken by a Taiwanese fishing boat in the strait at dawn on Tuesday, about 200 km away ( 125 miles) from the west coast of Taiwan. .
Asked about the submarine, Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo said he had an “understanding” of the intelligence situation but declined to say how he was monitoring it or give details.
China’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nuclear-powered submarines can operate underwater for months at a time, and the ballistic missile boats’ secretive mission means they rarely surface.
A security source familiar with the situation told Reuters the submarine was likely returning to its home port in Qingdao from the South China Sea. The source said Tuesday’s incident may have occurred because there was a malfunction and it was forced to surface.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.
Military experts say the strategic waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, where the largely shallow Taiwan Strait drops into depth, provide submarines with a location for an ambush, making it a hot spot for militaries, including the China, Taiwan and the United States.
Ballistic missile submarines are not designed to attack ships, but to launch ballistic missiles at targets on land.
Taiwan’s fleet of P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft is based at Pingtung air base in southern Taiwan, providing easy access to the southern part of the strait.
Taiwan has complained in recent years that China has used so-called gray zone warfare, designed to exhaust an enemy without resorting to open combat, such as flying surveillance balloons over the island.
“We must be fully alert to China’s continued military harassment and gray zone threats, and we must always understand China’s constant salami-slicing attempts to unilaterally change the status quo,” Koo said.
“We must always be alert, but not panic or be apathetic, and calmly deal with the situation in the strait,” he added. “We will not be the ones to provoke and call on China not to be a troublemaker.”
Taiwan has detected 20 Chinese military planes and seven ships around the island in the past 24 hours, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in its daily report on Chinese military activities on Tuesday morning.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
