Footage has emerged of Taiwan's first domestically produced attack submarine on the water for the first time in public.
The vessel's manufacturer, Taiwan Shipbuilding Corporation, released a video showing the Hai Kun (Mandarin for narwhal) during the final stages of its harbor acceptance test Tuesday in the southern port city of Kaohsiung.
The first-in-its-class Hai Kun will be followed by seven more in the coming years as Taiwan looks to update its aging submarine fleet comprised of two trainers built during World War II and two boats purchased from the Netherlands in the 1980s.
However, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the U.S. told Newsweek that "no matter how many weapons" Taiwan acquires, they "cannot stop the overwhelming trend of national reunification."
The time-lapse footage captures the final leg of the submarine's harbor acceptance trials.
First, the 230-foot boat can first be seen being removed from the plant where it was assembled, then loaded onto a floating dock and towed to a dry dock for final testing. The final moments of the video show the Hai Kun floating on the surface as engineers swarm over it.
The watertightness and ballast tanks "met the design expectations," the shipbuilder said in a statement.
The Hai Kun made its official debut to much fanfare in an unveiling ceremony in September, but Tuesday marked the first time that members of the public got a glimpse of several key components such as the flank sonar array, torpedo tubes, and torpedo countermeasure dispensers.
Newsweek reached out to Taiwan Shipbuilding Corporation with a written request for comment.
The indigenous submarine program is part of Taiwan's renewed focus on defense in the face of increasing People's Liberation Army activity in surrounding waters, including the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait separating China from Taiwan.
In addition to its domestic weapons programs and continuing purchases from Washington, the democratic island boosted its defense spending to 2.4 percent this year and raised the length of compulsory military service for new recruits from four months to a year.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, despite the fact Beijing's Chinese Communist Party government has never ruled on the island.
"Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. The reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait must and will be realized," Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for China's embassy in the U.S., told Newsweek.
"No matter how many weapons the DPP (Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party) authorities build or purchase, they cannot stop the overwhelming trend of national reunification, nor can they shake the Chinese people's strong determination, firm will, and formidable capabilities in defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Liu added.
The latest photos were snapped as the Hai Kun sat in its shipyard in the southern port city of Kaohsiung and as it was moved to a floating dock on Tuesday as it wraps up harbor acceptance testing. After that, it will continue on to its sea acceptance test, local media reported.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
