Washington yesterday warned there would be "repercussions" if Taiwan failed to approve a controversial NT$618.8 (US$18.2 billion) budget for defensive weaponry, officials said.
In an interview with Taiwan's TVBS cable network, Richard Lawless, a deputy undersecretary at the US Defense Department, voiced concern about the special budget waiting for approval by the legislature.
"It will be regarded as a signal, if you will, as the attitude of the legislation towards the national defense of Taiwan," Lawless said in Arizona, where a three-day defense industry conference was under way.
"If the budget failed to pass, or if a decision was made not to pass the budget, it will have repercussions for the United States, will have repercussions for Taiwan's friends," he said without elaborating.
Former US defense secretary William Cohen echoed Lawless' concerns.
Lawless and Taiwan's Deputy Defense Minister General Houh Shoou-yeh (霍守業) were keynote speakers at the opening on Sunday of the US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference in Scottsdale.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Defense confirmed yesterday that Comptroller Bureau Director Lieutenant General Teng Fu-chuan (
Local media have speculated that Teng's retirement was due to recent reports, allegedly from a source from within the ministry, of a possible budget shortfall for military payroll and military-run institutes. Teng's supporters say he is being blamed for the reports.
"Lieutenant General Teng is retiring at the age of retirement. It has no connection to [the salary reports]. No matter how difficult the national economic situation gets, the ... army's salary will still be paid," Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (
Wang, who graduated from the National Defense Management College, has experience with weapons purchases, having been stationed in the US as deputy chief of the arms purchase group. He also served as deputy chief of the ministry's Military Procurement Bureau before assuming the Comptroller Bureau deputy chief position.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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