Taiwan Test-Fires 3 U.S. Patriot Missiles

Taiwan test-fired three American-made Patriot air defense missiles Wednesday in a move likely to increase tensions with mainland China, less than 100 miles across the Taiwan Strait.

After the launch of an initial Patriot PAC-2 missile to check the weapon’s operating systems early Wednesday, two others were fired at dummy targets--one a drone aircraft, the other a small, domestically produced missile, according to Taiwanese military sources.

Television news cameras captured the launches, showing the missiles streaking through the bright morning sky into the distance. A spokesperson for Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the two missiles hit their targets.

“The tests were very successful,” said the official, who declined either to be identified by name or to comment in any detail on the operation.

Civil aviation authorities issued warnings for all aircraft to stay clear of the area and indicated that further tests could be conducted through Tuesday.

At a routine media briefing in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue used the development to denounce U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, labeling the practice a gross interference in China’s internal affairs. The comment reflects Beijing’s view that Taiwan is legitimately part of China and must eventually be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Although the Taiwanese government had made no secret of plans to test the antimissile defense system it finished deploying this year, Wednesday’s action comes as China’s military forces conduct their own highly publicized military maneuvers on Dongshan island off the eastern coast.

Those exercises are said to involve more than 10,000 troops from the three main branches of China’s military and center on a mock invasion of Taiwan. The maneuvers have been accompanied by strident, jingoistic reporting in the Chinese media. One such report in Sunday’s editions of the pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po newspaper published in Hong Kong declared that “Taiwan’s combat effectiveness will basically be destroyed” by invading mainland forces.

Such comments have led some defense analysts to suggest that the timing of the Patriot tests was partly deliberate.

“They could be an answer to the vehemence of the [mainland] reporting on the Chinese exercises,” noted Adam Ward, an Asia specialist at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Others, however, noted that a senior member of Taiwan’s general staff, Yeh Chu, told a news conference in January--after deployment of the Patriot system was completed--that the missiles would be tested later in the year. Last month, Taiwanese Defense Minister Wu Shih-wen also stressed that test-launching the Patriots was part of a routine check of a new weapons system and not meant to provoke Beijing.

Wednesday’s tests were conducted in Taiwan’s southeastern county of Taitung, about as far as possible from Chinese mainland territory.

Taiwan purchased 200 Patriot missiles from the United States in 1993 after an earlier version of the same system successfully shot down Iraqi Scud missiles launched against targets in Israel during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The island has reportedly deployed the new system in three locations around the capital, Taipei.

The Patriot missile system is considered an important element of Taiwan’s defense, one aimed at countering Beijing’s gradual buildup of short-range missiles deployed along the Fujian coast opposite Taiwan in recent years. U.S. military sources say Beijing has about 300 missiles aimed at Taiwan and is increasing that number by about 50 a year.

The flexing of military muscle and the political tension between the two longtime adversaries ironically come at a time of growing Taiwanese commercial investment in mainland China.