Taiwan Announces Plan to Build Own Submarines

Taiwan will build its own submarines to get around Beijing's efforts to prevent it from purchasing such craft from overseas and ensure an adequate defense against Chinese threats, President Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday.

During a visit to the Navy's main base in Tsoying, also spelled Zuoying, Tsai oversaw the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the construction of submarines.

"Under the strategic concept of effective and multilayered deterrence, subsurface combat ability is what Taiwan's defense is most in need of strengthening," Tsai said. "This is a problem that everyone is aware of but which in the past we were never able to resolve."