TAIPEI - Taiwan’s home-grown submarine programme will remain on track, its defence minister said on April 17, after the head of the programme resigned due to what he called unfair attacks against him and the military.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has made the submarine programme a key part of an ambitious project to modernise its armed forces, as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises to assert sovereignty claims that Taipei rejects.

Taiwan unveiled the first of eight new submarines in late September 2023, though it will not enter service until 2025. The programme has drawn on expertise and technology from several countries – a breakthrough for diplomatically isolated Taiwan.

In a statement late on April 16, Mr Huang Shu-kuang said he had resigned as head of the submarine project as he and the programme had been subjected to unfair attacks from people he did not name.

He told Reuters the submarine task force, which includes the navy and shipbuilder CSBC Corp, will continue to operate despite his departure. “It’s impossible that the team will be dismissed due to one man’s departure,” he said.

Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told reporters on April 17 that Mr Huang was a “conscientious” person and added: “The members of the task force are all on active duty and can work for a long time. It will not change due to a single personnel change.”

Mr Huang had previously described the submarines as a “strategic deterrent” that could also help maintain the island’s “lifeline” to the Pacific by keeping ports along Taiwan’s eastern coast open.

Taiwan hopes to deploy at least two such domestically developed submarines by 2027, and possibly equip later models with submarine-launched anti-ship missiles. REUTERS