Letters: The pitfall of the Taiwanese

Taiwan has recently been included within the scope of both US and Japanese military interests, a decision that reinforces the need for resistance against China's military.

US and Japanese experts consequently declared that there was an obvious imbalance in the quantity and quality of armed forces across the Taiwan Strait.

If our legislators pass the special arms-procurement package, our military power will be enhanced, and the US will restore some faith in the ability of Taiwan to defend itself.

For now, the Ministry of National Defense considers the Patriot missiles as part of its annual budget, which lowers the special budget and provides the legislature with more space to examine the bill.

But not only does this procrastination over the budget make the citizenry nervous, it also suits Beijing's strategy.

For example, sending pandas as gifts and importing Taiwan's fruit obviously lessen our need for vigilance and our sense of crisis. It's an invisible, vicious pitfall that the Taiwanese usually accept hypocritical friendliness and ignore the real motivations underneath.

Chou Pao-nan
Hsinchu