It is “very important” for Taiwan to increase its defense spending, a key US Congressional staff member told a Heritage Foundation discussion on Thursday.
US Senate Armed Services Committee staff member Eric Sayers said that committee chairman US Senator John McCain stressed the issue in talks with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in Taipei earlier this month.
He said that McCain reassured Tsai about the US’ commitment to Taiwan’s security and helping Taiwan enter the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement.
“We want to continually raise the importance of Taipei increasing its defense spending,” Sayers told the “View from Capitol Hill” discussion organized by Heritage director of Asian Studies Walter Lohman.
Sayers said that Taiwan’s spending of about 2.1 percent of GDP or about US$11 billion per year simply did not match China’s growth rate.
He said that while no one expected Taiwan to match China’s military spending, it was vital that Taipei finds a way to increase its defense budget.
Sayers suggested that Taiwan might have to move away from buying expensive fighter planes and move toward a larger arsenal of ground-to-air missiles.
He praised the Taiwanese navy for developing its own indigenous fast attack ships, catamarans and cruise missiles.
“The cross-strait balance is a difficult balance, but it is not insurmountable if the right choices are made in investing, divesting and training,” Sayers said.
He said that weapons training and advice was as important as weapons sales.
“We can sell all the shiny capabilities we want, but it is very important that the US trains Taiwan at a very high level,” Sayers said.
Asked if the administration of US President Barack Obama was likely to send another Taiwan arms package to US Congress this year, Sayers said that there is always “talk” of a package and that discussions continued, but added that it remained uncertain.
Regarding Taiwan’s plan to build its own indigenous submarine fleet, Sayers said Taipei should be careful not to look at the issue solely as a weapons platform, but to think of it as an “anti-surface” mission, preventing attack ships from crossing the Taiwan Strait.
“Taiwan needs to think outside the box on how to do that,” he said.
Sayers said there were much cheaper options than submarines, such as naval mines.
Lohman asked if the US should rethink the way it dealt with arms sales to Taiwan and increase coordination with Taiwanese.
“It is not just about the sales, it is about engagement and bilateral coordination,” Sayers said.
He said the US had a “pretty good sense” of what Taiwan needed.
Sayers said there are about 2,600 “engagements” or meetings of various sizes and importance each year between Taiwan and the US to discuss defense issues.
A student at National Chengchi University jumped from the roof of his apartment in the early hours of Sunday after he was allegedly bullied online. The 21-year-old student, surnamed Huang (黃), on Friday last week posted on the university’s online discussion forum asking the public to judge a dispute he was having with a female roommate about rent. An anonymous post on the online forum Dcard appeared on the same day, saying he was the last person to judge others, and that he was “a heavy smoker, lazy, a terrible group member for class projects and a person with a poor
POPULAR PRODUCTS: Most of the devices were made by Da-Jian Innovations, a drone maker, and TP-Link, which sells routers and other networking equipment More than 2,500 public schools and government offices are using 19,256 blacklisted Chinese communications and electronic devices, raising national security concerns, a National Center for Cyber Security Technology (NCCST) report said. The report, released late last month, showed that many of the blacklisted products were from Shenzhen-based Da-Jiang Innovations Technology (DJI, 大疆創新), which makes drones and cameras for aerial photography. The Executive Yuan has previously instructed schools and government offices to report back on their use and installation of blacklisted communications and electronic devices, which are to be replaced by the end of the year. If they are not replaced, due to budget
The military is to mount two tank guns purchased from the US on domestically made armored vehicles to aid in the research and development (R&D) of mobile gun systems, sources said on Saturday. Two sets of M68A2 105mm tank guns are to be mounted on Taiwanese-built CM-32 Clouded Leopards, the sources said. The official R&D would start next year, and the military hopes to produce two prototypes by 2023, they added. A 105mm tank gun is expected to be the main weapon of armored vehicles, with a secondary system to incorporate a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun with a 12.7mm remote-controlled machine gun turret. Sources
‘IT FEELS DESOLATE’: Foot traffic has all but stopped in the district, but some traditional stores that offer online shopping have seen their revenues increase Businesses in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華) would take at least six months to recover from the effects of a COVID-19 outbreak, a merchants’ association said on Sunday. Wanhua, home to the Ximending (西門町) shopping area, is usually one of the most visited parts of Taipei. However, people have been avoiding the district since last month, when a COVID-19 outbreak was discovered there. Now, only local residents can be seen on the streets of Wanhua and they pass by quickly without entering the shops, Taipei Business District and Industrial Confederation chairman Hung Wen-ho (洪文和) said. “Most businesses have shuttered up. Only a
RSS