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Taiwan’s military has publicly confirmed for the first time the existence of the “Yun Feng” (Cloud Peak) medium-range surface-to-surface missile.
It has been in development since the 1990s.
Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng mentioned the missile during a joint hearing of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee and Finance Committee on a proposed special budget of NT$240 billion to boost Taiwan’s missile arsenal.
Asked about the development and capabilities of the Yun Feng missile, Chiu was unwilling to reveal any details, saying only that the military is still “working on it.”
The Yun Feng missile has reportedly been under development since the 1990s and is designed to strike land-based targets inside China, according to local and foreign media reports.
Capable of hitting strategic targets such as airports, harbors and command centers in inland China, the Yun Feng missile is a key part of Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare plan to erode China’s combat capabilities, said Su Tzu-Yun a senior researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, cited by Focus Taiwan.
Local media speculated last year that the Yun Feng missile was tested in April 2020, but the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Taiwan’s state-owned weapon systems development institution, refused to comment on the reports.
How effective a missile that’s been in development for nearly 30 years will be against China’s increasing military might is questionable.
Meanwhile, Taiwan is not holding back any warnings towards Beijing.
President Tsai Ing-wen warned Beijing against further actions that could accidentally spark conflict across the Taiwan Strait. She also said that the record number of “incursions” into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) has undermined peace in the region.
“Chinese aggression has severely undermined regional peace and stability,” Tsai said at the weekly meeting of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Central Standing Committee. “Beijing must refrain from going too far and accidentally sparking conflict across the Strait.”
A total of 149 Chinese aircraft entered Taiwan’s ADIZ over four days — 38 on October 1st,, 39 on October 2nd, 16 on October 3rd and 56 on October 4th — prompting expressions of concern from countries such as the US, Australia and Japan.
German Foreign Office deputy spokesman Christofer Burger expressing Berlin’s “great concern” over the rising tensions between the two sides of the Strait.
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