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BBC Chinese: Tsai Ing-wen Kicked Off Taiwan’s Own Submarine Manufacturing Plan

BBC Chinese recently reported that Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen officially announced that, due to the increased threats from the Mainland and the effort the Mainland put in place to prevent Taiwan from purchasing foreign submarines, Taiwan decided to construct its own submarines. The submarine project has been assigned to a joint team from both the Chungshan Institute of Science and the CSBC Corporation Taiwan (CSBC is China Ship Building Corporation). Earlier, Taiwan had sent mission groups to Europe to acquire submarine design blueprints and patents. However, many potential partners declined their request. Taiwan currently has four outdated submarines. They bought two of them from the United States in 1973; these had a 1940’s design. They bought another two submarines from Holland in the 80’s. Several Taiwanese shipbuilders claimed they were fully capable of building submarines. President Tsai’s plan is to launch the new submarines in eight years.

Source: BBC Chinese, March 21, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-39340900