Taiwan should rely on a Cold War-style "balance of terror" to safeguard national security in the face of intimidation from Beijing, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday in response to a rally against his proposed arms-procurement package.
"The best scenario will see a `balance of terror' being maintained across the Taiwan Strait so that the national security is safeguarded," Yu said. "If you fire 100 missiles at me, I should be able to fire at least 50 at you. If you launch an attack on ... Kaohsiung, I should be able to launch a counterattack on Shanghai."
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Unfortunately, Yu said, during Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule Taiwan failed to develop a counterattack capability comparable to that of Israel.
"That's why the NT$610.8 billion [US$18 billion] arms-procurement budget we're seeking from the legislature is necessary, because it'll keep us safe for at least 30 years, based on a study by the Ministry of National Defense," Yu said. "It seems like a good deal, because it'll cost an average of only NT$20 billion a year."
Yu said that the main purpose of the procurements was to sustain national development. Without it, he said, the nation may end up like Hong Kong.
"Arms procurement is necessary, otherwise many problems are bound to result, and it is our child-ren who will have to pay the price and shoulder the consequences," he said.
Responding to opposition criticism that the amount being spent was outrageously high, Yu called on the public to understand that US arms dealers were always going to make a profit from the deal.
"The US government is the only country in the world who has the guts to sell us weapons," Yu said. "We have to understand that it's a seller's market and that we have very limited space in which to haggle."
Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (
"The weapons-procurement project is necessary because China has racked up double-digit increases to its military budget every year since 1995, while we have been cutting military spending," Chen said.
"We're very worried about the defeatism embraced by certain people. We hope they come to real-ize that there's no such thing as a free lunch: If you want peace and security, you have to pay for it," he said.
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), however, said that the time was not right for the legislature to handle the request and that the Cabinet should be using the budget for other things.
"The government should be allocating the nation's limited resources to solve urgent social problems such as unemployment, poverty and education to make the country a better place," he told the party's national congress yesterday morning.
Lien said that the amount the Cabinet requested would increase over time because of "maintenance fees."
Also See Story:
Thousands protest against arms deal
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
CONCESSION: A Shin Kong official said that the firm was ‘willing to contribute’ to the nation, as the move would enable Nvidia Crop to build its headquarters in Taiwan Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) yesterday said it would relinquish land-use rights, or known as surface rights, for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), paving the way for Nvidia Corp to expand its office footprint in Taiwan. The insurer said it made the decision “in the interest of the nation’s greater good” and would not seek compensation from taxpayers for potential future losses, calling the move a gesture to resolve a months-long impasse among the insurer, the Taipei City Government and the US chip giant. “The decision was made on the condition that the Taipei City Government reimburses the related
RSS