The New York Times
Date: Nov. 4, 2017
By Steven Lee Myers and Chris Horton

ZUOYING NAVAL BASE, Taiwan — The Hai Pao, one of Taiwan’s four navy submarines,

The Hai Pao, a World War II-era vessel that represents a quarter of Taiwan’s submarine fleet, at anchor at Zuoying Naval Base in southern Taiwan in October. CreditBryan Denton for The New York Times

began its service as the Tusk, an American vessel launched in August 1945 at the end of World War II. Its sister submarine, the Hai Shih, is a year older. Neither can fire torpedoes today, though they can still lay mines.

The submarines, said Feng Shih-kuan, Taiwan’s minister of national defense, “belong in a museum.”

The Hai Pao — with its paint-encrusted pipes, antiquated engines and a brass dial with a needle to measure speed in knots — will instead remain in service past its 80th birthday, a relic of a military that once was one of Asia’s most formidable. Taiwan’s aging submarine fleet is but one measure of how far the military balance across the Taiwan Strait has tilted in favor of the island’s rival, mainland China.  [FULL STORY]