The easing of tensions across the Taiwan Strait offers chances for interaction between Taiwan’s military and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), an academic said on Sunday.
The two sides could start with basic cooperation projects, Wang Kao-cheng (王高成) of Tamkang University told a one-day forum held to address the nation’s current defense status and future prospects.
The military expert suggested sea rescue, anti-piracy collaboration, anti-terrorism plans and other non-traditional security issues as workable options for interaction.
Taiwan and China could then move on to academic exchanges and talks on the possibility of establishing hotlines to avoid accidental conflict, he said.
Such cooperation would not have to be included in a peace pact, he added.
The concept of a possible peace pact between Taiwan and China was introduced by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) during his re-election campaign last year.
With the easing of cross-strait tensions in recent years, the military challenges Taiwan is facing right now are long-term, rather than immediate threats, Wang added.
A possible reduction in Taiwan’s military budget because of economic circumstances, for example, might trigger a wide range of problems, including difficulties carrying out military reforms, he said.
The Ma administration has announced that Taiwan will adopt a volunteer military service system to replace the existing compulsory system by 2015 as a part of efforts to streamline the military.
Non-traditional threats such as earthquakes and the role played by the country’s military in disaster relief missions should also be widely discussed, he added.
Lin Cheng-yi (林正義), a researcher at Academia Sinica, said at the forum that helping out with disaster relief should not be the military’s priority task.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS