Tuesday, June 14, 2022

"Taiwan Official Warns Supersonic Cruise Missile Can Strike Beijing"

From The Drive's The Warzone vertical, June 13:

As China’s hostility intensifies, a top Taiwanese official warns that the Yun Feng supersonic cruise missile can reach out and touch Beijing. 

You Si Kun, President of Taiwan’s Legislative Assembly, or Yuan, gave a speech on Taiwan Overseas Network where he declared that the country’s domestically produced Yun Feng supersonic cruise missile is capable of reaching Beijing. The message follows ominous warnings made by Chinese military officials directly to their U.S. counterparts to avoid the Taiwan Strait, claiming it is not international waters. However, the United States, along with the vast majority of the international community, does not accept China’s claims in this regard. This also comes as U.S. President Joe Biden recently vowed to defend Taiwan amid a crisis, although the statement was walked back to a degree, leaving allies to question how a crisis could pan out.

In his speech, You encouraged the Chinese government to think twice before invading Taiwan, reminding them that the largely secretive Yun Feng supersonic cruise missile is a capability they won’t shy away from using. The speech also underscored a growing desire held by Taiwan to develop a more self-sufficient military-industrial complex for the country to more freely prepare for a potential conflict with China. 

These ambitions are echoed by purported pressure from the U.S. government urging Taiwan to decrease its focus on some advanced weapons procurement programs in favor of less flashy but potentially more combat-relevant initiatives. You compared his aspirations to Ukraine’s will to defend its sovereignty throughout its war with Russia, insisting that Taiwan should not wait for China to invade and instead actively prepare for what may prove to be inevitable. Liberty Times Net writes of You's remarks:....

Until Taipei has a nuclear warhead they can strap on top of the missile they should probably think less about Beijing and more about the Three Gorges Dam.

A failure of the dam, besides cutting 22,500 MW nameplate capacity from the grid would release a wall of water 100 meters high moving at 100 kilometers per hour. Despite spreading out and slowing down the flood would extend 1500 km to Nanjing, with remaining very high flows exiting past Shanghai. Along the way the Institute of Virology in Wuhan might be at risk, so a win - win.

Except for the 400 million people in the affected areas downstream.