Vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) on Wednesday called for support from the US Congress and business leaders for Taiwan’s inclusion in the US defense supply chain.
“I seek your support for Taiwan’s inclusion in the DoD [US Department of Defense] NDIS [National Defense Industrial Strategy] international collaboration mechanisms, such as SOSA, security of supply arrangements,” Hsiao said in a prerecorded video at the Hill and Valley Forum in Washington.
While Taiwan is striving to uphold the values of democracy and freedom, it is facing daily challenges to its cyberspace, information technology and telecommunications infrastructure, maritime and airspace, she said.
Photo: screen grab from YouTube
The peace and security of Taiwan “is essential to global prosperity” as the nation is an “irreplaceable and indispensable contributor to global technology advancements,” Hsiao said.
She called on public and private stakeholders around the world to work together to ensure that “peace and prosperity prevail.”
Hsiao said that the current US defense industry base is producing “neither enough nor on time” the hardware to meet global demand.
The US Department of Defense in January published the National Defense Industrial Strategy to guide the improvement and the modernization of the US defense industrial base ecosystem “so it delivers at speed and scale for our war fighters,” US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said at the time.
The strategy underlined the importance of international collaboration, Hsiao said.
“I believe this is where a Taiwan partnership with the United States is not only a force multiplier, but an absolute necessity,” she said.
She proposed an integrated collaboration or coproduction scheme that leverages Taiwan’s advantages in hardware manufacturing and the US strength in security technologies to “add resilience and efficiency to our defense supply chains.”
“Together we can manufacture nearly anything as efficiently and reliably as anyone in the world,” Hsiao said.
The forum is dedicated to “harnessing the power of technology to address America’s most pressing national security challenges,” according to its Web site.
Hsiao said that she hoped the forum would help foster “an even closer Taiwan-US partnership in the realm of technology and national security.”
Asked about Hsiao’s speech, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday told reporters at the legislature in Taipei that integrating Taiwanese and US industries would be “highly beneficial to both parties.”
Taiwan’s defense industry has a strong foundation and other relevant industries are also well-developed, he said.
Joining the US defense supply chain would not only be a good thing for Taiwanese industries and national defense, but also for the nation’s allies and partners, Wu said.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern
RSS