The US has announced it will not sell Taiwan F-16C/Ds, but will upgrade its F-16A/Bs. Taiwan’s fighter jets are old, while the capabilities of China’s jets keep improving, expanding the gap between China’s and Taiwan’s air forces. The US arms package is like a short rain after a long drought — it won’t end the drought, but it will bring short-term relief. Taiwan may be unhappy about the deal, but must accept it.
The Ministry of National Defense (MND), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Presidential Office and the Cabinet applauded the US’ decision. A pleased President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) tried to claim credit, saying the arms purchase budget since he took office has exceeded that of former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) 12 years in office and former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) eight years in office. He also said this proves he has done more to improve the military’s war preparedness than Lee and Chen together.
Trying to prove that Ma is focusing on national defense merely by pointing to the arms procurement budget does not reveal the full extent of the government’s national defense policies.
During Lee’s time in office, the US was not Taiwan’s only arms source — France provided Mirage jets and Lafayette-class frigates, while Germany provided minesweepers. Lee’s presidency was also the high point for domestic arms development, with the production of eight Cheng Kung-class frigates and 130 Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF), which laid the groundwork for Taiwan’s current national defense.
Because international arms purchase channels dried up during the Chen presidency, arms procurement focused on the US. Kidd-class frigates and long-range early warning radar systems are the most well-known purchases, but the purchase of Patriot PAC-3 missiles, diesel-powered submarines and anti-submarine aircraft was blocked dozens of times in the legislature by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) because of political infighting. The US might have been prepared to sell these weapons systems, but the chaotic Taiwanese legislative situation forced Washington to stand by and wait.
First, the KMT tied the hands of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government and blocked the military upgrades, and now it is bragging that it has purchased more arms than the previous two administrations. That is shameful.
Although the US has sold a total of US$18 billion in defense-related items to the Ma administration, a closer look shows that whether it be Black Hawk helicopters, Apache attack helicopters or Patriot PAC-3 missiles, the procurement applications had been initiated by the DPP government. However, following the Typhoon Morakot disaster in August 2009, Taiwan’s lack of large helicopters not only caused the US to send helicopters to assist in the rescue effort, Washington also announced not long after that it had agreed to sell helicopters to Taiwan. In other words, Ma reaped the benefits of what others had sowed.
The Ma administration has been strongly criticized for neglecting national defense and is now making a big propaganda number of the US’ decision to upgrade our aging fighter jets. Although the government had budgeted a mere NT$2 million (US$65,700) for the purchase of F-16C/Ds, it is bragging about its accomplishments by only comparing how much the previous two administrations had spent on arms procurement, which is deception at its worst.
Governmental policy implementation is a continuous process: The Chen administration reaped the benefits of the Lee administration’s work and the Ma administration is now reaping the benefits of the Chen administration’s work. It’s time Ma started thinking about what his administration will be able to leave for the next administration.
In an article published in Newsweek on Monday last week, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged China to retake territories it lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. “If it is really for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t China take back Russia?” Lai asked, referring to territories lost in 1858 and 1860. The territories once made up the two flanks of northern Manchuria. Once ceded to Russia, they became part of the Russian far east. Claims since then have been made that China and Russia settled the disputes in the 1990s through the 2000s and that “China
Trips to the Kenting Peninsula in Pingtung County have dredged up a lot of public debate and furor, with many complaints about how expensive and unreasonable lodging is. Some people even call it a tourist “butchering ground.” Many local business owners stake claims to beach areas by setting up parasols and driving away people who do not rent them. The managing authority for the area — Kenting National Park — has long ignored the issue. Ultimately, this has affected the willingness of domestic travelers to go there, causing tourist numbers to plummet. In 2008, Taiwan opened the door to Chinese tourists and in
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) arrest is a significant development. He could have become president or vice president on a shared TPP-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket and could have stood again in 2028. If he is found guilty, there would be little chance of that, but what of his party? What about the third force in Taiwanese politics? What does this mean for the disenfranchised young people who he attracted, and what does it mean for his ambitious and ideologically fickle right-hand man, TPP caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌)? Ko and Huang have been appealing to that
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
RSS