On September 28, Zhou Bo, senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Center for International Security and Strategy and China Forum expert, gave an interview to BBC News on Taiwan’s “domestically-developed submarines” and the situation in the Taiwan Strait.

The eight “homemade submarines” still need to go through numerous experiments and tests, and there will be problems to solve after they come into service in the narrow and shallow Taiwan Strait, said Zhou as he questioned the submarines’ actual effectiveness.

He also refuted the statement of Huang Shu-kuang, former “chief of the general staff” of Taiwan’s armed forces that “the submarines will make the Taiwanese military invincible,” arguing that the strategic value of eight submarines is highly limited compared with the growing prowess of the People’s Liberation Army. Zhou Bo made it clear that peaceful reunification is the only way out for Taiwan.