The director of the American Institute in Taipei has slammed the country's lack of progress in fighting piracy of videos and other intellectual property, while stressing urgency of reforming the military's structure and culture to counter the growing threat of China's military modernization.
AIT Director Douglas Paal made the comments in a speech to the Asia Society in Washington.
Paal's speech marked the first time in memory that an AIT director had spoken publicly during a trip to Washington.
On the problem of intellectual property rights (IPR), Paal said, "It is becoming more serious."
Not only is Taipei's failure to curb IPR theft losing copyright owners millions of dollars, "the inability to reassure the international community that their technology will be protected also raises concerns for Taiwan's plans to become a center for new, high-value, knowledge-based technologies," such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, Paal said.
"Until jail sentences are long enough to deter this behavior, and the criminals are jailed and their production machinery is dismantled and destroyed, there will be little meaningful improvement," he said.
This, and other trade disputes, including those in agriculture and pharmaceuticals, will prevent any movement on Taipei's hopes for a free-trade agreement with Washington, Paal said.
"We're talking about not a short period of time. It will probably be a few years," before there's such an agreement, he said.
Turning to cross-strait relations, Paal praised President Chen Shui-bian's (
Paal said that Chen had "again demonstrated a desire to steer a moderate course."
Later, in response to reporters' queries, Paal said that Chen's speech had "set a very positive tone for the year, and we're looking forward to responses from the PRC side commensurate with that. We hope that will help to stabilize the situation into the new year."
Paal said some statements out of Beijing recently seemed to respond to Chen. But "whether that constitutes a real direct response to what President Chen said, I'm not clear."
He reiterated the need for a peaceful cross-strait settlement.
"The US believes that both sides of the Taiwan Strait have much to gain from seeking common ground and much to lose by engaging in behavior that increases tensions, or from unilaterally altering the status quo in a way to undermine confidence in their commitment to peace and stability," he said.
Paal also said that the "acquisition of advanced weapon systems appropriate to Taiwan's self-defense is important," but warned that hardware alone will not assure security. More important, he said, will be reforms in military structure and culture.
"An effective national security structure, staffed by mixed, well-trained, professional civilians and military officers is crucial to making the right acquisition choices and to making this hardware platform perform as intended," he said.
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