TAIPEI — Taiwan said on Monday that the number of Chinese missiles aimed at the island now stood at 900, and slammed Beijing's recent satellite-killing test as the behaviour of a "military superpower".
"This action is ... bad for regional security," cabinet spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang said, after a military spokesman confirmed reports of the missiles pointing across the Taiwan Strait.
"This does not fit with Communist China's 'peaceful rise'. They say one thing and do another," he said.
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said last August that China had deployed about 820 missiles along its southeast coast.
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Beijing has vowed to bring the self-governed democracy of 23 million people back under mainland rule, by force if necessary.
The government also expressed concern about reports that China used a medium-range ballistic missile on Jan. 11 to knock out an ageing Chinese weather satellite by smashing into it.
China has declined to confirm or deny the satellite-killing test, which would be the first exercise of its kind in 20 years.
The report has raised concerns among Western countries about the scattering of debris that could damage other satellites and the risk of an arms race in space.
Cheng said Taiwan opposed the reported satellite move as that of a "military superpower" and questioned China's commitment to keeping peace in space.
Commentators have highlighted the risk for Taiwan in particular if Beijing had the capability to knock out U.S. satellites watching over the strait between the island and the Chinese mainland.
The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but is obliged by the Taiwan Relations Act to defend the island.
Arms Package
The latest figure for the missiles pointing across the strait came days after Taiwan's divided parliament delayed voting on a bill that could authorise purchases of advanced U.S. military planes and submarines for defence against China.
"(President) Chen (Shui-bian) brings up the number every once in a while to push the budget," said Wendell Minnick, Asia bureau chief with the Washington D.C.-based Defense News.
The independence-leaning president has long sought passage of the budget, citing Chinese threats. The opposition Nationalists, who favour closer ties with China, have stalled the arms package, arguing it is too expensive, unnecessary and provocative.
The United Daily News, a Chinese-language paper in Taiwan, on Monday cited unidentified U.S. sources as saying that the M-9 and M-11 missiles could travel between 300 and 600 km (188 and 375 miles) and that Taiwan's missile defence would not be effective.
Taiwan officials said last March that China could use its missiles to sustain a 10-hour attack.
Feeds