Peace and stability in Taiwan could only be realized through “self strength” and the nation’s ability to defend itself, Deputy Minister of National Defense Andrew Yang (楊念祖) said on Monday.
He said that the nation was collaborating closely with the Pentagon to develop asymmetrical defensive capabilities.
“It is not very juicy, but it will be effective in achieving our objective,” he said.
Photo: CNA
Yang was speaking at a symposium in Washington organized by the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies to discuss Taiwan’s response to the changing security environment.
He said that the administration of US President Barack Obama had given no new indications that it was ready to sell Taiwan the long-requested F-16C/D aircraft.
However, he stressed that while the more advanced fighters were still needed, Taiwan’s upgraded F-16A/Bs would provide formidable air defense.
Yang emphasized the importance of local weapons development, which he said would “boost confidence” and solve the problem of having to buy spare and replacement parts abroad.
He said Taiwan was continuously improving its weapons production capabilities, developing effective technologies and cutting costs.
Some of the new systems are not very sophisticated or high-tech, but fit Taiwan’s geography and environment and “most importantly, are cost-effective,” he said.
Yang said that Taiwan had never underestimated Beijing’s willingness or capacity to use force.
He said Beijing had never renounced the use of force and that the possibility that it might do so was “alive and kicking.”
It was obvious that Taiwan could not compete with Beijing and that already there was an imbalance in military capabilities, he said.
Asked about a recent spate of espionage cases in Taiwan, Yang stressed that the spying had been dtected by “internal” counter-espionage efforts.
He said the spies had been caught at an early stage, before their “behavior and activities” caused significant damage.
The sensitive and classified information stolen by the spies and passed on to China was “pretty much outdated — not current or recent” information, he said.
“In terms of compromising our interests, [the damage] has been kept to a minimum,” Yang said.
He said China had had “many opportunities” to try to penetrate Taiwan’s security apparatus, but that Taiwan “has fixed those gray areas and taken the necessary measures to cope with future attempts.”
Chinese espionage had not compromised Taiwanese military morale and had instead served to alert officers that “enemy threats are real and genuine and that the enemy is right next to you and not far away,” he said.
Director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the US National Defense University Phillip Saunders told the symposium that Taiwan’s Quadrennial Defense Review contained a “very frank assessment” of the nation’s security environment.
He said it contained many good ideas “especially in the area of innovative and asymmetrical approaches.”
Saunders said that by showing it was helping itself, Taiwan was keeping alive the possibility of “outside intervention” in the case of an attack by China.
He said that the commanders of China’s People’s Liberation Army could be deterred from attacking if Taiwan kept a good political relationship with the US and also maintained military capabilities that would allow it to hold out long enough for the US to intervene in the case of a conflict.
Saunders said he was “not sure” Taiwan was spending enough on defense.
“That’s part of keeping the possibility of US intervention alive,” he said. “If Taiwan’s not doing enough for its own defense, I think that has a corrosive effect in Washington.”
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS