Last month, Hon Hai Group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) said that arms procurement should not involve buying weaponry “just for the sake of it” and that “Taiwan should stop purchasing arms from the US.”
The remarks by Gou, who is contesting the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential primary, evoke memories of attempts by the KMT and the People First Party during former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration to sabotage purchases of military equipment.
The main slogan the pan-blue camp used at the time was: “Oppose wasteful arms procurement.” It encouraged people to protest, even employing nonsensical slogans such as: “Oppose arms procurement, tackle unemployment,” “oppose arms procurement, help credit card slaves” and “oppose arms procurement, help prevent suicides.”
The administration of then-US president George W. Bush was willing to sell Taiwan three important types of military equipment: eight diesel-electric submarines, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile batteries and Lockheed P-3C Orion aircraft. If the KMT had not blocked that purchase, Taiwan would have received the first submarine in 2013 and the final vessel this year.
When discussing submarines in 2015, then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that “the US has agreed to sell us submarines, but we have heard nothing in 14 years. It is really too much” — as if he were not aware that the only obstacle to the sale was the reticence of KMT legislators.
Ironically, with Ma in office, the KMT resubmitted a similar arms purchase agreement, selectively proposing less controversial items that would not create a Chinese backlash, but a lot of time had already been wasted.
When Ma boasted that Taiwan had never spent more money on arms purchases from the US, he did not mention that he was benefiting from the letter of request, with the pricing and availability of weapons the nation needed, submitted by Chen’s administration.
The request for submarines — which are critical for defending the Taiwan Strait frontline — remains up in the air, but when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office, it launched an indigenous submarine program.
The KMT has long bragged about its special relationship with China, but the party has been too China-friendly in terms of cross-strait relations and too prone to wishful thinking, which has led to unavoidable conflict with its claim to be the protector of the Republic of China.
This is why the party is always questioned and scrutinized when it talks about national defense capabilities and its own determination, regardless of how many superstars, such as Gou or Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), it has on its side.
Gou said on Facebook: “I dare declare peace! I will insist on democracy! I will defend the nation! What about you?”
When did it become necessary to say that you want to protect democracy and Taiwan? These are the most fundamental demands. Apart from hinting at the incongruence between the KMT’s statements and actions, these comments are meaningless.
Chen Kuan-fu is a research student at National Taipei University’s Department of Law.
Translated by Edward Jones and Perry Svensson
As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reach the point of confidence that they can start and win a war to destroy the democratic culture on Taiwan, any future decision to do so may likely be directly affected by the CCP’s ability to promote wars on the Korean Peninsula, in Europe, or, as most recently, on the Indian subcontinent. It stands to reason that the Trump Administration’s success early on May 10 to convince India and Pakistan to deescalate their four-day conventional military conflict, assessed to be close to a nuclear weapons exchange, also served to
The recent aerial clash between Pakistan and India offers a glimpse of how China is narrowing the gap in military airpower with the US. It is a warning not just for Washington, but for Taipei, too. Claims from both sides remain contested, but a broader picture is emerging among experts who track China’s air force and fighter jet development: Beijing’s defense systems are growing increasingly credible. Pakistan said its deployment of Chinese-manufactured J-10C fighters downed multiple Indian aircraft, although New Delhi denies this. There are caveats: Even if Islamabad’s claims are accurate, Beijing’s equipment does not offer a direct comparison
After India’s punitive precision strikes targeting what New Delhi called nine terrorist sites inside Pakistan, reactions poured in from governments around the world. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) issued a statement on May 10, opposing terrorism and expressing concern about the growing tensions between India and Pakistan. The statement noticeably expressed support for the Indian government’s right to maintain its national security and act against terrorists. The ministry said that it “works closely with democratic partners worldwide in staunch opposition to international terrorism” and expressed “firm support for all legitimate and necessary actions taken by the government of India
Taiwan aims to elevate its strategic position in supply chains by becoming an artificial intelligence (AI) hub for Nvidia Corp, providing everything from advanced chips and components to servers, in an attempt to edge out its closest rival in the region, South Korea. Taiwan’s importance in the AI ecosystem was clearly reflected in three major announcements Nvidia made during this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei. First, the US company’s number of partners in Taiwan would surge to 122 this year, from 34 last year, according to a slide shown during CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech on Monday last week.