A US Department of Defense report on the Chinese military released on Monday briefly criticized Taiwan’s defense spending and its transition to voluntary military service.
The report, Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2013, said that as the Taiwanese government shifts to a national volunteer force, the freed-up savings and resources are being used for personnel salaries and benefits, but it is “diverting funds from foreign and indigenous [weapons] acquisition programs.”
It said the program did not meet is objective, with a total of 235,000 people inducted into military service in recent years, far below the target of 270,000.
“Taiwan’s military spending has dropped to approximately 2 percent of GDP — well below President Ma’s [Ying-jeou (馬英九)] pledge of 3 percent,” the report said, adding that China’s defense budget is 10 times that of Taiwan.
The annual report to the US Congress covers China’s security and military strategies, as well as the security situation in the Taiwan Strait.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia David Helvey briefed journalists on the report at a press conference at the Pentagon on Monday.
“Over the past year, cross-strait relations have improved. However, China’s military buildup shows no signs of slowing,” Helvey said, adding that China has more than 1,100 short and medium-range ballistic missiles directed at Taiwan.
The range and capability of the missiles are being enhanced, and China is modernizing its conventional and precision-attack weapons deployed against Taiwan, Helvey said.
“China’s overall strategy [toward Taiwan] continues to incorporate elements of persuasion and coercion to deter or repress the development of political attitudes in Taiwan favoring independence,” he said, quoting the report.
“Dealing with a potential contingency in the Taiwan Strait remains the PLA’s [People’s Liberation Army] primary mission ... In this context, should deterrence fail, the PLA would be called upon to compel Taiwan to abandon independence, or to re-unify [sic] with the mainland by force of arms, while defeating any third-party intervention on Taiwan’s behalf,” he said.
The report indicated that the PLA’s ability to attack Taiwan is improving each year, as currently China is unable to totally cut off Taiwan through a maritime blockade.
However, this capability will be substantially improved over the next five to 10 years, he said.
The US Department of Defense added that the PLA’s modernization is based on preparations for a Taiwan conflict with the possibility of US intervention, and that the “Taiwan military’s technological superiority, and the inherent geographic advantages of island defense” are gradually eroding.
The PLA Air Force “has stationed a large number of advanced aircraft within an unrefueled range of Taiwan, providing them with a significant capability to conduct air superiority and ground attack operations against Taiwan,” and “a number of long-range air defense systems provide a strong layer of defense of China’s mainland against a counterattack,” the report said.
“China’s development of support aircraft provide it improved ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] to support PLA Air Force operations in a contingency,” the report said.
In addition, the PLA Navy has developed “a credible at-sea nuclear deterrent, and introducing new platforms that are positioned to strike Taiwan in a cross-Strait conflict” and its new weapons “are designed to achieve sea superiority within the first island chain and counter any third party intervention in a Taiwan conflict,” the report said.
The report’s conclusion said that although progress is being made on cross-strait dialogue, the Taiwanese government and much of the public are not supportive of direct negotiations on issues of Taiwan’s sovereignty.
REACHING OUT: President Tsai expressed condolences to the deceased man’s family and wished a speedy recovery to those who were wounded in the shooting The Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) on Monday called on the US to label organizations associated with the suspect in the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church shooting as domestic terrorists, following accusations that he was a member of a group backing unification with ties to the Chinese government. David Wenwei Chou (周文偉), 68, was arrested on Sunday and is being held in lieu of US$1 million bail at the Orange County Intake Release Center over a mass shooting at the California church that left one dead and five wounded. Local police suspect the shooting was politically motivated after they found notes in
The US Department of State yesterday criticized Beijing over its misrepresentation of the US’ “one China” policy in the latest diplomatic salvo between the two countries over a bid by Taiwan to regain its observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter. “The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s ‘one China principle’ — we remain committed to our longstanding, bipartisan one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Joint Communiques, and
‘TOO RESTRICTIVE’: Ending US sales of weapons that do not fall under the category of ‘asymmetric’ would hamper Taiwan’s defense against China, two business groups said Taiwan’s weapons procurement decisions are made based on its needs, and are not influenced by individual arms dealers, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday after two US business groups questioned a US official’s comment on arms sales to Taiwan. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Regional Security Mira Resnick told the business groups via video link on Saturday that Washington would adjust the types of weapons sold to Taiwan and end “most arms sales to Taiwan that do not fall under the category of ‘asymmetric.’” The American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan and the US-Taiwan Business Council on Monday
FATES LINKED: The US president said that sanctions on Russia over Ukraine must exact a ‘long-term price,’ because otherwise ‘what signal does that send to China?’ US President Joe Biden yesterday vowed that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack in his strongest statement to date on the issue. Beijing is already “flirting with danger,” Biden said following talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, in which the pair agreed to monitor Chinese naval activity and joint Chinese-Russian exercises. Asked if Washington was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he replied: “Yes.” “That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “We agreed with the ‘one China’ policy, we signed on to it ... but the idea that it can be
RSS