President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan’s building of indigenous submarines is to show the world that the country is determined to defend itself. Tsai was speaking Tuesday in the southern port city of Kaohsiung at a ceremony marking the beginning of the construction of Taiwan-made submarines.
Tsai said the construction is crucial to the navy’s plan to develop asymmetrical warfare capabilities and to deter hostile fleets from surrounding the island. Tsai also said building indigenous warships demonstrates the government’s determination to boost Taiwan’s self-sufficient defense capabilities.
Taiwan has been dealing with increased Chinese military activity and incursions into Taiwan’s surrounding waters and air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
President Tsai said the construction is a milestone in Taiwan’s history of national defense and shipbuilding as no previous administrations have done this before.
