ANTI-SUBMARINE STRATEGY
Why should Washington
and its allies tread very carefully in the Taiwan Strait?
By Sidney Hey
We have entered a new
era of geopolitics, no doubt about it. Trump is now sitting in the White House setting
in motion his foreign policy strategies (inspired by William McKinley) that
will undoubtedly shape international reality. His main objectives focus on
managing solutions for Ukraine, the South Sea (China) and the unstable
situation in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, no one has
been standing idly by and since Trump's victory became known, each of the US
adversaries has been working to confront what will be a very dangerous era led
by a ruler with a fractious character, who undoubtedly under a nationalist tone
will continue with the hegemonist agenda and with a tendency to be controlled
by his narcissism.
Thus, North Korea has
not halted its progress in developing new hypersonic missiles, joining the
select group of countries that possess this technology. At the same time,
Russia and Iran have already signed a new cooperation and mutual assistance
treaty that brings together common interests, one of which is to address the
already promised aggressive US policy.
China has also been
working on everything related to the island of Taiwan and the illegal and
subversive Anglo-American interference with the intention of turning it into a
military fortress. Recently Putin and Xi Jinping met again to strengthen and
expand strategic cooperation aimed (among other things) at guaranteeing
security, which is being disrupted by US interference. To this end, the Biden
administration invested a large amount of funds to support the ‘democratic’
activities of the CIA and MI6 screens operating inside the island (and also
from Hong Kong), buying the will of Tsai Ing-wen's government and, of course,
financing arms packages for much more than defending the island from a
hypothetical invasion.
Consistent with the
Chinese character, Xi Jinping did not stand idly by and watch events unfold. As
has been the policy of his two predecessors, the need to strengthen fists is as
important as progress in the economy and trade. His history of sacrifices, in
which Western abuses had much to do with it, gives solid meaning to the proverb
‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step’ as China did not become
a power overnight.
Other states, believing
that they will find salvation without effort or awareness of the need to
strengthen their muscles, get into the wheel of eternal indebtedness and
humiliation with those who are their natural enemies.
The examples are
categorical of what a weak nation would mean. Without the muscle to protect the
strategic interests of such a vast nation, it simply could not speak of any
economic prosperity, let alone independence in its trade policies.
China, on the other
hand, has worked for decades to sustain its political and economic progress,
even having to disavow its leadership in favour of the latter. The only thing
that makes the Anglo-Saxon West think twice is force, as they use it in their
geopolitics. It is in this sense that the Chinese have not stopped their
research, development and advances in warfare technology, which is now becoming
vital in the Taiwan issue.
For a number of years
now, fearful of Western intelligence reports, Taipei has set itself the goal of
modernising and expanding its submarine fleet with the cooperation of the
British and the US. The first product of this is the ‘Haikun’ (IDS), the first
submarine built in Taiwan.
Coincidentally, after
some rumours from an IWFOR colleague connected with some British submarine
officers from Whitehall temporarily stationed in Australia, there is talk of a
secret Chinese naval weapon that could sink any NATO nuclear submarine. Apparently,
a couple of years ago there was a closely guarded incident with a ‘Vanguard’
class SSBN submarine in which there were two American naval attachés who took
note of the event.
As they entered the
strait and with information that they were not being watched from the mainland,
the operators detected at about 44 fathoms two static objects similar in shape
and size to magnetic mines in the vicinity of “Pingtan” Island (nearly Chinese
sea), but that is where the surprise came. As soon as they saw them on the sonar
(LFA) they began to pulse a kind of sine wave that apparently shut down the
reactor and the ship's computer system. As he told me: ‘It was a terrify
situation that wrinkled my bum’. The pulsing would have lasted only a few
seconds and after it stopped the system was restored so they could run away and
tell the story.
If just two devices no
bigger than a magnetic mine disabled the nuclear reactor of a 150-metre vessel
and the entire computer control, crippling it, what could happen with a dozen
such devices across the strait or scattered throughout the South Sea?
It seems that the top
brass took it very seriously and did not attribute this to casual failures due
to lack of maintenance or design. They also ruled out any problems with the submarine
cables that run through it, suggesting that there is a very worrying
possibility that a new underwater weapon system has been found that could
disable any submarine, British, Aussie or American, in the blink of an eye.
