Randall Schriver, former US assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, on Wednesday said that the US should “strengthen” training of Taiwan’s armed forces to help boost their combat readiness.
Schriver, now chairman of the board of the US think tank Project 2049 Institute, made the remarks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing as a witness when he was asked by US Senator Dave McCormick about his views on the US government’s efforts to deter a war in the Taiwan Strait.
Schriver said it has been an evolutionary process, in which the US has become more direct in language and rhetoric on the issue.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In addition, the US has been moving into areas that were previously too sensitive, such as the training of Taiwanese military forces, he said, adding that the US should enhance its initiatives in those areas.
“We need to strengthen our training of Taiwan military forces,” Schriver said. “That was a taboo for decades, and now we’re getting them to a point where they’re more professional, more proficient, as they’re placing a greater emphasis on training.”
As part of the cross-strait war deterrence strategy, the US should also encourage Taiwan to look at more modernized command and control that would help optimize battlefield decisions, given the changing nature of warfare, he said, adding that “they need to look at a lot more unmanned, autonomous and in every domain, including underwater.”
Schriver, who served as assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs during US President Donald Trump’s first term in office, also said that the US needs to help develop the Philippines, particularly Northern Luzon, given its proximity to the Taiwan Strait.
The US military has been helping to train Taiwan’s military forces for decades, but has been doing so discreetly due to the sensitive nature of such actions.
In March last year, then-minister of national defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) confirmed that US military personnel were being rotated to provide training to the armed forces in Taiwan, including conscripts, and Taiwanese soldiers were also receiving training in the US.
He did not give any specifics for security reasons.
Wednesday’s hearing in the US Senate was titled “Shared Threats: Indo-Pacific Alliances and Burden Sharing in Today’s Geopolitical Environment.”
Before the hearing began, US Senator Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said China’s rising aggression in the Indo-Pacific region should be confronted, “but America should not be the world’s only watchdog.”
“To counter Chinese aggression, we need our allies to work with us to ensure each of us is strong and capable of pushing back,” he said, calling for allies to “expand US basing and overflight access” around the Indo-Pacific region.
“The best way to show China that we stand together is if we are physically present in the region,” Risch said.
Risch also said that Taiwan must continue to increase its defense spending.
However, Schriver said that people should not become focused on accounts and numbers.
While Taiwan’s defense spending only comprises 2.5 percent of its GDP, its investment in resilience of power, communications and civil defense has not been considered, he said, adding that Taiwan should be recognized for these efforts.
Citing the Philippines, Schriver said that while the nation only spent 1.5 percent of its GDP on national defense, it has allowed the US to establish bases and strategic facilities under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
RSS