President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said the plan to acquire F-16C/D aircraft from the US remained unchanged and that improved cross-strait relations would not affect the government’s efforts to maintain the country’s national defense forces.
Ma said his administration would continue to ask the US to expedite the sale of F-16C/Ds and diesel-electric submarines, promising to build a “small, but strong” national defense force to safeguard the nation.
“We will not engage in a competition for military equipment with mainland China. The government will build the military as a small, but strong national defense force,” he said while presiding over an honors and award ceremony for top-level military officials at the Presidential Office.
Ma’s comments followed a news report that the US government had sent a delegation to Taiwan last week to deliver the news that Washington would not proceed with the sale of the 66 F-16C/D aircraft requested by Taipei, but that it would upgrade Taiwan’s fleet of F-16A/Bs.
The Ministry of National Defense has denied the report by Defense News magazine, saying the government did not receive any such message from Washington.
Ma yesterday said the government was continuing with its plan to accumulate military equipment, and at the same time promote peaceful relations across the Strait to prevent any confrontation.
Ma reiterated what he referred to as “three lines of defense” for the nation, including the institutionalization of relations with China to seek reconciliation, improving the nation’s reputation and seeking international support, and strengthening Taiwan’s national defenses via diplomatic and national defense measures.
However, at a separate setting yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said the US’ reported refusal to sell the F-16C/Ds was shocking news.
He singled out Ma as the one bearing “full responsibility for the failure.”
Saying that the former DPP administration had allocated a budget of about NT$16.6 billion (US$574 million) to purchase the F-16C/D fleet in 2007 afte the US had basically agreed to the sale, Tsai said Ma has no one else to blame but himself.
“The Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT], led by Ma, who served as its chairman at the time, blocked the sale 69 times in the Legislative Yuan as Taiwan missed the best time for the procurement,” Tsai said.
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said the Ma administration knew that the US would eventually block the sale, but it has been using a stalling tactic by telling people that negotiations were still ongoing.
KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), on the other hand, said he believed no decision on the F-16C/Ds would be made until US Vice President Joe Biden returned to the US from his three-nation trip in Asia.
Lin also rebutted DPP lawmakers’ charges that the KMT was to be blamed for the opportunities lost to buy F-16C/Ds because of its opposition to the budget earmarked for the aircraft.
The KMT did not boycott the US$475 million and US$592 million written in the budget by the DPP administration in 2007 and 2008 respectively for the F-16C/Ds, Lin said.
“The money was returned to the Treasury at the end of those fiscal years because the request to buy the F-16C/Ds had yet to be approved by the US,” he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHRIS WANG AND SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is next month to hold an exhibition in Osaka, Japan, showcasing the rich and unique history of Taiwanese folklore and literature. The exhibition, which is to run from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20 at the city’s Central Public Hall, is part of the “We Taiwan” at Expo 2025 series, highlighting Taiwan’s cultural ties with the international community, National Museum of Taiwan Literature director Chen Ying-fang (陳瑩芳) said. Folklore and literature, among Taiwan’s richest cultural heritages, naturally deserve a central place in the global dialogue, Chen said. Taiwan’s folklore would be immediately apparent at the entrance of the