It is apparently little known that `Research Vessels of Texas' submitted a proposal to both the Naval International Programs Office (NIPO) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office to produce eight submarines and deliver them by January 2008.
A presentation was made to Taiwanese naval officer Captain Mike Chen and Taipei representative office officials in Washington. The presentation covered sensitive issues concerning equipment, strategy and tactics relation to the submarines. In order to meet the deadline for delivery, a production start date in late 2003 was required.
The proposal was first submitted to US President George W. Bush through Andrew Card, Bush's chief of staff.
In the cover letter to Card it was pointed out that procurement should not go through the standard Pentagon procedures such as the NIPO, as no US public funds were to be used and competitive bidding was not required.
The initial proposal minus contingency fees totalled US$2.56 billion for all eight submarines. With contingency fees included, the total was US$4 billion.
If produced by the planned start date, the subs would have been among the most advanced conventional submarines in the world.
Two items are noted with disappointment. First, Card sent the proposal to the NIPO, where the contract officer essentially refused to consider it (this was expected). Second, the Taiwan representative office never formally accepted or rejected the proposal (they said NIPO was handling their effort to acquire the submarines).
If Research Vessels of Texas was included in the deal, this project could have been successfully completed.
It cannot be said that the US was incapable of fulfilling the promise made by its president to the people of Taiwan and their military.
The people of Taiwan need to know this. Hopefully you can tell them.
M. Jerome Curry
President, Research Vessels of Texas
Taiwan’s fall would be “a disaster for American interests,” US President Donald Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday last week, as he warned of the “dramatic deterioration of military balance” in the western Pacific. The Republic of China (Taiwan) is indeed facing a unique and acute threat from the Chinese Communist Party’s rising military adventurism, which is why Taiwan has been bolstering its defenses. As US Senator Tom Cotton rightly pointed out in the same hearing, “[although] Taiwan’s defense spending is still inadequate ... [it] has been trending upwards
Small and medium enterprises make up the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, yet large corporations such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) play a crucial role in shaping its industrial structure, economic development and global standing. The company reported a record net profit of NT$374.68 billion (US$11.41 billion) for the fourth quarter last year, a 57 percent year-on-year increase, with revenue reaching NT$868.46 billion, a 39 percent increase. Taiwan’s GDP last year was about NT$24.62 trillion, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, meaning TSMC’s quarterly revenue alone accounted for about 3.5 percent of Taiwan’s GDP last year, with the company’s
There is nothing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) could do to stop the tsunami-like mass recall campaign. KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) reportedly said the party does not exclude the option of conditionally proposing a no-confidence vote against the premier, which the party later denied. Did an “actuary” like Chu finally come around to thinking it should get tough with the ruling party? The KMT says the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is leading a minority government with only a 40 percent share of the vote. It has said that the DPP is out of touch with the electorate, has proposed a bloated
In an eloquently written piece published on Sunday, French-Taiwanese education and policy consultant Ninon Godefroy presents an interesting take on the Taiwanese character, as viewed from the eyes of an — at least partial — outsider. She muses that the non-assuming and quiet efficiency of a particularly Taiwanese approach to life and work is behind the global success stories of two very different Taiwanese institutions: Din Tai Fung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). Godefroy said that it is this “humble” approach that endears the nation to visitors, over and above any big ticket attractions that other countries may have
RSS