A vice-minister from Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense told lawmakers that the port in Kaohsiung is deep enough and wide enough to accommodate a U.S. aircraft carrier.
By Lonton2933 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
The issue was discussed at a hearing of the legislative Foreign and National Defense Committee after U.S. Senator Ted Cruz suggested rerouting the John C. Stennis CSG to Taiwan following Beijing’s refusal to allow the ships to make a port call in Hong Kong.
Hsu Pei-shan cautioned that although the carrier is not physically restricted from docking in Kaohsiung, the government has never done a assessment on how to provide logistic support to such a large number of American ships during a port call.