Less than two years after winning a landmark 630 million euro (US$875 million) lawsuit against a French defense contractor over the scandal-plagued sale of Lafayette-class frigates to Taiwan in the 1990s, an arbitration court last week shot down Taipei’s hopes for a second win in a related case, citing a lack of evidence.
In its follow-up claim, Taipei had filed claims of 45.5 million euros, including interests and prosecution fees, against DCNS, the maker of the frigates, over a 1996 spares supply contract for the six multi-role stealth frigates.
A Basic Ordering Agreement signed on May 20, 1996, stipulated that Taiwan would be entitled to a 15 percent reduction if French agents were caught paying commissions to middlemen.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
However, an arbitration tribunal under the International Chamber of Commerce cut the compensation to 3 million euros, citing a lack of evidence to support Taiwan’s full claims against DCNS, then a state-owned entity known as Direction de Constructions Navales, Defense News reported.
The Ministry of National Defense had set aside NT$75 million (US$2.6 million) in this year’s defense budget to fund the new litigation, which it filed on Oct. 12 last year.
The ruling follows a similar one handed down on June 9 last year, in which Thales, a company then known as Thomson-CSF, which supplied the electronics on the frigates, and the French government were ordered to pay Taiwan 170 million euros and 460 million euros respectively for illegal kickbacks and commissions in the initial US$2.8 billion Bravo deal signed in 1991.
Aside from hampering access to critical technologies to Taiwan, the Lafayette scandal also claimed the life of Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓), a naval captain who is believed to have been murdered in December 1993 as he was about to blow the whistle on colleagues who were receiving kickbacks in the deal.
Thomson-CSF’s agent in Taiwan, Andrew Wang (汪傳浦), fled the country soon after Yin’s body was found floating near Suao (蘇澳).
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
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