A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator yesterday said a Ministry of National Defense report to be delivered to the legislature today fails to highlight the Chinese military threat, pointing to political interference from the Presidential Office.
Though Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu (高華柱) is scheduled to deliver his report on military affairs to a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee today, its contents were delivered to DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang’s (蔡煌瑯) office yesterday.
Failing
Tsai said the report did not emphasize the Chinese military threat to Taiwan, therefore the military was failing in its duty to evaluate the level of hostility in the Taiwan Strait and to protect the nation.
According to media reports, the report allocated about 200 characters to describe the threat posed by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), while more than 1,000 characters were used to address the same subject in last year’s report.
While mentioning the more than 1,500 short-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles the PLA targets at Taiwan — a number that is still increasing — the report does not discuss the various other means by which China could attack Taiwan.
Political pressure
Tsai said that in the name of smooth relations with China, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was pressuring the military to be silent on the Chinese threat and was instead forcing it to focus on relief efforts.
Responding to Tsai’s comments, ministry spokesman Major General Yu Sy-tue (虞思祖) said the military had last month published its annual report on Chinese military power, to which all legislators had access, so the military saw no point in repeating information in the report to be delivered by the minister.
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