Taiwan’s plan to build its own submarines might have received a boost from the US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference that concluded on Tuesday.
“The program now has a trajectory to it that is increasingly encouraging,” US-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers said.
Speaking at the closing press conference, he said that Taiwan’s defense policy was moving toward increased domestic involvement and development.
“That direction fits with the notion of Taiwan’s indigenous submarine program,” Hammond-Chambers said.
He said that the scope of the program would be determined by the next presidents in both nations.
“We are just starting a four-year program with a relatively low amount of money, so the pace of this will be relatively slow, but the door has been opened,” Hammond-Chambers said.
He said that the presence of 19 Taiwanese companies at this year’s conference — the most ever — was “extremely encouraging.”
The US business community would now focus on broadening the number of companies it works with in Taiwan not just on the submarine program, but also on cyberwarfare issues, surface warfare, and the indigenous development of training aircraft and jet fighters, he said.
“We are looking at all of Taiwan’s defense requirements through an increasingly broad prism of domestic development,” Hammond-Chambers said.
He said the large Taiwanese delegation had been very active seeking out potential US business partners during the conference.
“Indigenous development is an essential part of Taiwan’s future defense and defense policy,” he added.
He was also optimistic that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal would eventually be passed by the US Congress and that Taiwan would gain membership in the second round of negotiations.
“I cannot conceive of Taiwan outside of the TPP for economic and strategic reasons,” Hammond-Chambers said.
He said there were still some significant economic and political issues for Taiwan to deal with, particularly in agriculture, financial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, the ability of capital to flow in and out of the nation freely, and access to investment in certain areas.
However, he insisted that he had been assured by the White House that China would not be a consideration in assessing Taiwan’s candidacy as a member of the TPP.
Hammond-Chambers said it is likeley that China would try to pressure other TPP members to blackball Taiwan’s entry bid.
“There will be hard negotiations, and securing Taiwan’s entry is going to require leadership from the US and Japan, and from other economies,” he said.
“The Chinese will look for a country they can pick off and pressure,” he added.
Hammond-Chambers said that the US business community should focus on making the case for Taiwan’s inclusion in the TPP.
EVA Airways was ranked the eighth-best airline in the world for this year, the only Taiwanese carrier to make it into the top 25 Airline Excellence Awards this year, aviation reviews Web site AirlineRatings.com said on Wednesday. AirlineRatings.com has a seven-star rating system to evaluate more than 360 airlines around the world every year, EVA Airways said in a statement on Thursday. “We are delighted that efforts by the entire EVA staff have been recognized by Airline Ratings,” EVA Airways president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) said in the release. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company identified and adopted services and procedures that enhance and
A promotional event for the launch of a drinks store led to police questioning a 26-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), the Taichung Police Department said yesterday. Police said that they questioned Chang and forwarded the case to prosecutors, accusing her of producing, distributing, broadcasting or selling pornography. Police said she faces charges related to the alleged distribution of indecent photographs on Twitter and using overtly sexual innuendos to promote the store on Monday night. Officers stumbled upon the content during a routine Internet “patrol.” Chang faces a prison sentence of up to two years and up to a NT$90,000 fine if found guilty
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
MORE WARNINGS: If the US company does not clarify and solve issues with its frozen berries, the FDA might extend an import suspension implemented last month, it said The Kaohsiung Department of Health yesterday said it fined Costco NT$4.5 million (US$146,265) over contaminated frozen strawberries, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that although the US company had filed an improvement plan, an import suspension on frozen berries could remain. Three types of frozen berry products imported and sold by Costco have tested positive for the hepatitis A virus since April. The Kaohsiung health department previously fined Costco NT$300,000 for not providing the sales list of a contaminated batch of Kirkland Signature Three Berry Blend imported from Chile, in contravention of the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法). It later
RSS