Illustration by Marianne Murray/Reuters
Taiwan has quietly recruited expertise and technology from all over the world to build a submarine fleet to deter China's invasion. At the risk of irritating Beijing, defense companies and engineers from at least seven countries are helping this diplomatically isolated island.
Authors: MARI SAITO, YIMOU LEE, JU-MIN PARK, TIM KELLY, ANDREW MACASKILL, SARAH WU and DAVID LAGUE
For more than two decades, Taiwan has tried to purchase a fleet of modern conventional submarines to withstand an existential threat-China's invasion. There are no recipients.
The United States, Taiwan’s main ally, has a nuclear-powered fleet and has not built diesel-powered submarines in decades. Other countries hesitate, fearing to anger Beijing.
Now, as China under the leadership of President Xi Jinping intensifies its military intimidation against Taiwan, a series of foreign submarine technology suppliers, with the approval of its government, are assisting in a secret plan to build submarines in Taiwan. An investigation by Reuters found that Taipei had secretly purchased technology, components and talents from at least seven countries to help it build an underwater fleet that could cause a heavy blow to any attack on China.
The United States, Taipei’s main foreign weapons supplier, provided key technologies, including combat system components and sonar. But the aid comes from outside the United States.
Defence companies from the United Kingdom provided vital support. These companies, like the United States, operate a fleet of nuclear-powered ballistic missiles and attack submarines.
According to a person familiar with the matter, Ian McGhie, a veteran of the Royal Navy's submarine fleet and retired Brigadier General Ian McGhie, is a key figure in recruiting submarine experts. The person familiar with the matter said McGhie helped a Gibraltar-based company hire engineers including former Royal Navy sailors.
According to the information obtained by the Ministry of International Trade through freedom of information requests, the UK has also approved a number of export licenses for British companies to supply submarine components, technology or software to Taiwan in the past three years. Government data analyzed by Reuters shows that the value of submarine technology approved for export from the UK to Taiwan has increased exponentially in recent years.
Taipei has also successfully hired engineers, technicians and former naval officers from at least five other countries: Australia, South Korea, India, Spain and Canada. The experts advised the Taiwan Navy and the state-backed shipbuilder Taiwan CSBC Corporation at a shipyard in the port city of Kaohsiung to build a new submarine.
These countries are "playing with fire, and those who play with fire will be burned to death."
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, chairman of the U.S. Taiwan Business Council, told Reuters that Taiwan is looking for such submarine engineering expertise on a global scale.
"This is a puzzle," Hammond Chambers said. Taiwan must look for technologies and components in the international market that cannot be purchased domestically. Therefore, he said, it "cuts the pie into small pieces" to determine which jobs require foreign assistance, such as helping to complete the design of a submarine.
The Taiwan project was officially launched in 2017 under the official name of the Local Defense Submarine Project. Its code name is "Haichang", which means "Ocean Prosperity" in Chinese. According to a government statement, the shipbuilder CSBC started construction last year, with the goal of delivering the first of the eight ships in the plan by 2025. According to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, the value of the project is estimated to be as high as US$16 billion.
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After learning of the findings of this article, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Taiwan "the authorities colluded with external forces on this plan." The spokesperson said in a written statement that relevant countries should avoid participating in submarine operations, "stop military ties with Taiwan, and stop supporting the'Taiwan independence' separatist forces."
The spokesperson said that these countries are "playing with fire, and those who play with fire will be burned to death."
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense stated that the new submarine is essential to the “asymmetric warfare of the National Defense Forces,” which refers to launching a war with a superior military enemy. It added that the various challenges faced by the plan have been "eliminated" and are being "implemented as planned."
Some details of this sub-project, including the participation of a small number of foreign engineers and the tendering of some equipment and expertise, have been previously reported by Reuters. This report provides the most detailed plan to date and the extent of Taiwan’s acceptance of foreign aid. It is based on reports from 11 countries and interviews with more than 80 people, including current and former officials, diplomats, former divers, and defense industry sources. The reporter also analyzed company documents and thousands of social media posts.
Two Taiwanese individuals with direct knowledge of the project said that the project leader has developed a low-key strategy to limit Beijing’s ability to pressure foreign governments and companies not to cooperate with Taipei. Two people familiar with the matter said that the Taiwan team directly approached foreign companies instead of requesting approval from governments. With the orders on hand, these foreign companies subsequently applied to their government for export licenses.
According to a public statement made by two people familiar with the situation and Taiwanese officials, all key components have now been approved for export. The two said that many of these parts are related to the combat system.
Nonetheless, fear of retaliation from Beijing has prevented some transfers. According to two people familiar with the matter, a German company that provided important equipment abruptly terminated a transaction last year. They refused to disclose the name of the company or the technology involved. The supplier’s manager later revealed to Taiwan that the sale was blocked by its parent company, which has extensive commercial interests in China.
Two people familiar with the matter said that in order to minimize such setbacks, the Taiwan team made sure to obtain two to three sources of many important technologies if one of the suppliers withdrew.
Foreign diplomats said that Taiwan’s success in acquiring expertise and technology reflects the growing concerns of the West about China’s expanding military power and Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan. In September, the United Kingdom and the United States reached an agreement with Australia to help Canberra build nuclear-powered submarines because the United States and its allies responded to China's military buildup. Two weeks later, Britain sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait for the first time since 2008.
Submarine assistance is a breakthrough for isolated Taipei, which has not obtained the official diplomatic recognition of the country that approved the project's export license. "Taiwan is not that alone," said a Taiwanese person familiar with the project. "Considering all the export permits we have managed to obtain, we know that many countries are helping."
When asked about the UK’s help with the project, a British government spokesperson said that the UK “has not changed its long-term policy towards Taiwan: we have no diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but are based on vibrant business, education and culture. Strong unofficial relationship based on contact."
In response to questions about the plan, a spokesperson for the US State Department said: "The United States will continue to provide Taiwan with necessary defense goods and services to enable Taiwan to maintain sufficient self-defense capabilities." stability."
Beijing insists that Taiwan is part of China and has repeatedly called for peaceful reunification, but it does not rule out the use of force to place the island under its control. President Tsai Ing-wen said that Taiwan is an independent country, officially named the Republic of China, and vowed to defend its freedom and democracy. As Chinese shipyards mass-produce the warships needed for the invasion, a fleet of modern submarines will greatly increase Taiwan’s firepower.
According to the Pentagon, China has 58 submarines, of which 6 are nuclear-powered ballistic missile ships. The Taiwan Navy has deployed only four submarines. Two are old-fashioned submarines from World War II: the Guppy-class submarine made in the United States, which has been in service in Taiwan since 1974 and is only suitable for training. The other two are more modern: the Sea Dragon class submarine was built in the Netherlands and entered service in 1987.
Senior submarine crews in the West, Japan and Taiwan said that the eight new submarines, plus the Shanghai Dragon, would pose a deadly threat to the invading fleet. These ships are equipped with powerful torpedoes and anti-ship missiles, and can attack troop carriers and warships required by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the Chinese army to land in Taiwan.
Two Taiwanese who have direct knowledge of the sub-project said that these ships will also be deployed in deeper waters east of the island. This will help maintain open ports along Taiwan’s eastern coastline, which is the furthest from mainland China, to provide supplies during the conflict.
The submarine will also take advantage of the weaknesses of the PLA Navy. Analysts say that the PLA Navy still lags behind the United States and its allies in advanced anti-submarine warfare capabilities. The existence of Chinese coastal submarines will force China to maintain continuous anti-submarine operations. "The firepower of torpedoes is much stronger than missiles or guns," said Tatsuhiko Takashima, who retired as commander of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's submarine fleet last year.
Not everyone thinks that the submarine program is what Taiwan needs. Some strategists said that Taipei should mainly invest in smaller, cheaper but deadly weapons, such as mobile anti-aircraft missiles and anti-ship missiles. If disguised and deployed in cities and mountains, these weapons can strike at the PLA invasion force before it reaches Taiwan.
Former Taiwan military chief Li Ximing outlined this principle before retiring in 2019. Li said that Taiwan needs to retain the ability to counter intruders in the event that major conventional hardware such as fighter jets may be lost.
As early as 2001, the United States agreed to provide Taiwan with conventionally powered submarines as part of a larger weapons program. But American shipyards have built these ships for decades, so Washington cannot deliver them. The U.S. submarine fleet is completely nuclear-powered.
Because other countries feared offending China, Taiwan’s efforts to obtain submarines elsewhere failed. After the Netherlands sold Hailong to Taiwan in the 1980s, Beijing lowered its diplomatic relations with the Netherlands. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Reuters that in order to restore relations, the Netherlands signed an agreement with China in 1984 stating that it "will not approve the export of any new military products to Taiwan." The agreement is still valid.
The turning point of the plan was the 2016 election of President Tsai, whose ruling Democratic Progressive Party champion created a stronger military deterrent for the People's Liberation Army. Four people familiar with the project said that a research team of the ruling party has been studying this issue, and Tsai Ing-wen decided to build a new submarine even before taking office.
Three of the people familiar with the matter said that at an important meeting in 2015, the retired submarine commander Yang Yi briefed Cai on the importance of submarines. Reuters could not reach Yang. Other senior naval officers, including Admiral Huang Shuguang, the former military chief of the island, strongly supported the project.
As a result, in 2017, as tensions in the Taiwan Strait increased, the Ministry of National Defense and CSBC signed a memorandum of understanding, officially launching Taiwan's plan to build submarines.
The former Chief of the Military Staff Huang, who is currently a senior adviser to the National Security Council, briefed lawmakers on the latest situation of the project, but the project was extremely confidential. One person who attended the briefing said that legislators must sign non-disclosure agreements. At some meetings held in the past few years, naval officers brought in a model submarine in a cardboard box before revealing it to lawmakers. The person said that with the development of the design, the model looks different every time.
At a meeting at the end of last year, the Navy submitted export license documents issued by foreign governments for review by legislators. The person familiar with the matter said that the names of these companies have been coded, and legislators must consult the manual to understand which companies are assisting the plan. Every time a legislator uses the manual, they record their names and the page numbers they view.
Obstacles still exist. Building a submarine from scratch is expensive and technically challenging. Taiwan also has to face the problem of the old conventional submarine manufacturers' refusal to provide design or other assistance.
For example, the Netherlands has agreed to retain the two existing sea dragons. But the country does not engage in new Taiwanese sons. When asked why, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that according to the 1984 agreement with Beijing, the government would not approve any new export licenses for military equipment to the island.
Tokyo, one of the closest allies of the United States, has also been reluctant to intervene. Japan has one of the most advanced conventional submarine fleets in the world. According to two senior sources from the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo, Japan had informally discussed the idea of helping Taiwan but was abandoned because of concerns about how China might react.
The former Fleet Commander of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and retired Lieutenant General Koda Yoji said that one of the reasons for Japan's hesitation was the fear that offending Beijing would have economic consequences. Koda said that if a Japanese company loses business in China because it helps Taiwan, it is a powerful lobby.
The Ministry of Defense of Japan declined to comment.
In order to maintain the participation of suppliers, Taiwan has been quietly proceeding. However, some hints of international support have gradually disappeared.
In November last year, Zheng Wenlong, chairman of CSBC, confirmed that foreigners and internal employees of the shipyard had drafted blueprints. In response to a question from a Taiwanese congressman, he said: "Our staff draws the blueprint by themselves, of course, with the help of foreign technicians, but the main body is made by ourselves." However, Zheng told lawmakers that he cannot disclose the source of foreign technical assistance. .
A little-known company incorporated in Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, in 2013 provides a key talent pipeline. Gavron Limited, a company led by two Israelis, won a contract to provide technical advice to CSBC. According to a 2018 Ministry of National Defense press release, the contract is worth about 600 million New Taiwan dollars (20 million U.S. dollars). Company documents list Gavron's two directors as Gil Yossef Cooper and Arie Beizer.
Except for the news that he was awarded the contract and recruited some engineers for the project, there was little disclosure about Gavron's role. A Gavron manager told Reuters that he could not answer questions without the client's permission. The manager refused to let Cooper and Beizer be interviewed.
Gavron stated on its website that it provides “decades of experience from consultants such as nuclear submarines...and others with special technical skills.” The company also stated that “many” of its consultants are from the Royal Navy. Professional diver.
Among them was McGee, a former senior submarine crew member of the Royal Navy, who recruited engineers to participate in the Taiwan project. In 2017, the recruitment advertisement of Taiwan Gavron submarine engineer was posted on the online recruitment platform in Europe. It lists McGhie as a contact.
The advertisement stated that the work will include a "pressure hull and main bulkhead design review." Both are vital elements: the pressure hull is made of special steel and is a structure that keeps the submarine watertight when it dives. It must withstand immense strength. The bulkhead is the internal structure that divides the submarine into multiple parts to strengthen the pressure hull and allow the submerged compartment to be sealed in an emergency.
Reuters contacted McGhie for comment. He stated that due to the sensitivity of the customer and his own contractual obligations, he needed Gavron's permission to discuss the project. He did not specifically mention Taiwan. In a subsequent email, McGee said there were "some inconsistencies and minor errors" in his and Gavron roles, but he did not elaborate. In his LinkedIn profile, he said that he assisted a company in Gibraltar to obtain "multi-million pound complex technical services for customers in the Far East Heavy Industries sector."
According to the British government website, McGee was the commander of the British Army in Gibraltar until 2016. His LinkedIn profile stated that he had served in the military for 32 years and was part of the team that "designed, negotiated and delivered" Britain’s first national cybersecurity plan, a £650 million project that he was working on at the time. Cyber security office work. British Cabinet Office.
Reuters found that at least 12 foreign engineers were interviewed or on social media that they had participated in submarine projects or worked for Gavron in Taiwan.
These recruits—composed of young and experienced submarine experts—have experience in advanced submarine projects. According to the recruits’ social media information, they include the S-80 built by the Spanish state-owned shipbuilder Navantia and the British nuclear-powered agile attack submarine built by BAE Systems.
Spanish naval architect Juan Herrero Valero (Juan Herrero Valero) said in an article published on his university website in 2017 that he had been working in a British company in Kaohsiung since that year and was involved in Taiwan project. He said that after contacting him through LinkedIn, he was recruited to participate in the project. "I'm really surprised because I'm still young," the engineer said in the article. He pointed out that he worked with more experienced engineers in Taiwan. "But the consulting team trusts me." He declined to socialize with Reuters.
Last month, the United States quietly disclosed that it would approve the sale of key technologies for the project. This term appeared in a letter from the State Department to Congress on January 5, which was published in October in the Federal Register, the official publication of the U.S. government announcement. The letter stated that Washington is preparing to permit the transfer of technical data and services worth US$50 million or more to Taiwan, Italy and the United Kingdom to support Taiwan’s submarine project. The letter said that the technology will "support system integration, installation, operation, training, testing, maintenance and repair."
However, Washington keeps most details confidential, including which US companies are involved. According to two sources in Taiwan, Lockheed Martin is providing a submarine combat system that integrates and displays sonar and other sensor data to enable the commander to engage the target. According to sources, Raytheon Technology is supplying sonar.
In 2018, Lockheed posted a job advertisement on JobSearcher.com, an online recruitment site, recruiting a deputy project manager in charge of the design phase of Taiwan's existing Hailong submarine and new local sub-projects. The post stated that candidates must have "mandarin foreign language skills." Earlier this year, Lockheed advertised on another online recruitment site for a combat systems engineer, hiring one to work on the "Hailong" and the new submarine.
Lockheed and Raytheon declined to comment on this story.
Aid to Taiwan is in line with the long-standing U.S. policy. Since Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, the US government has been required by law to provide Taiwan with means of self-defense.
British companies also play a key role. At the request of freedom of information, the UK’s Department of International Trade revealed that in the past three years, 28 “applicants” or corporate entities have obtained licenses to export submarine components, technology or software to Taiwan. The department did not specifically mention the submarine program.
The list includes the high-tech defense company QinetiQ Ltd. Three people familiar with the matter confirmed that QinetiQ was involved in Taiwan's plan. One person said that the company provided advice on underwater safety management. QinetiQ declined to comment.
The Canadian subsidiary of British BMT Group Ltd also participated. BMT is a contractor for the British nuclear submarine fleet. Four people familiar with the matter said that subsidiary BMT Canada Ltd was hired to provide consulting and engineering advice. One of the people familiar with the matter said that this includes a review of CSBC's plans.
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BMT Group declined to comment. The Canadian Department of Global Affairs did not comment on BMT Canada's involvement. "Canada does not maintain military or defense relations with Taiwan," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Reuters analysis of government data shows that the value of submarine technology and equipment approved for export from the UK to Taiwan has increased significantly.
Between 2011 and 2017, the United Kingdom approved an export license to sell sub-equipment worth at least £323,549 (US$432,000) to Taiwan. From 2018 to March this year, this number jumped to at least 158 million pounds (211 million US dollars). The equipment includes test models and software. The UK data does not indicate whether exports are used for new sub-projects.
As Taiwan pushes to complete the first ship in 2025, two people familiar with the plan said that their main concerns are delays in importing equipment due to COVID-19 and China's possible pressure on suppliers.
At present, multinational efforts are still in progress. A Taipeier who knew the project likened it to the Japanese folktale Momotaro. In the story, a lonely boy gets help from a group of unlikely allies (a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant). Defeat a terrible demon.
"We work together to defeat the devil," the person said.
Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, Anthony Deutsch, Devjyot Ghoshal, Emily Chan, Kazuhiko Tamaki, Nobuhiro Kubo, Mike Stone, Lefteris Papadimas and Michele Kambas.
Authors: Mari Saito, Yimou Lee, Ju-min Park, Tim Kelly, Andrew MacAskill, Sarah Wu and David Lague