Eleven academics from the Academia Sinica, together with over 100 retired generals, have expressed their opposition to the arms procurement program, taking to the streets on Saturday for a protest march that ended outside the Legislative Yuan. There is still much room for debate on the issue of whether NT$610.8 billion is a little steep for the intended purchases from the US government.
Those who protest the arms procurement, saying that it will only cause mutual escalation between Taiwan and China, are only giving China the opportunity to put more pressure on Taiwan. This misconception not only puts the safety of the Taiwanese at risk, it also has serious implications for the maintenance of peace within Asia and in the world. One could also be skeptical about the political motivations behind all this.
Three years ago the Pentagon commissioned a study by the Rand Corp entitled The United States and Asia: Towards a New US Strategy and Force Posture. The ensuing report recommended that the US military use the island of Guam as a major base, and that it make arrangements to be able to use airports in the southernmost islands of the Ryukyu chain.
Three years later, many of the recommendations made within the report have subsequently been officially implemented by the US government. For example, for the first time in the thirty years since the end of the US-Vietnam War, B-52 bombers have been dispatched to Asia, with six being kept on Guam. Also, at the end of last year four nuclear-powered submarines were sent to the West Pacific, and the budget has been increased to allow for six. With all this, it's clear that Guam has already been made into a military defense hub for the Asia-Pacific part of the US' global military strategy.
Japan's Shimoji-shima, mentioned in the Rand report, is only 270km away from Naha city in Okinawa and 460km away from Taipei, a major advantage since a quick response can be made from there to any situation that arises in the Taiwan Strait. As a way out of the problem of the relocation of US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, the Japanese government is considering making Shimoji into a base to be jointly used by a special group created from the Japan Self Defense Forces and the US Air Force. This, they hope, will allow them to respond to any future problems that emerge in the surrounding area.
In order to deal with any possible attack from North Korea or China, the US State Department has allocated a huge budget of over US$5 billion for a five-year program to establish a missile defense system, and has asked Australia to shoulder some of the expense and to participate in research and development.
Despite the fact that Australia, because of its location in the South Pacific, is in the least danger, Australian Defense Minister Defense Robert Hill responded by saying that although the country is in no immediate danger from a missile attack, there are no guarantees that this will always be the case. Given this, the Australian government decided to bite the bullet and coughed up the expenditure.
Singapore and its neighbors have, up to now, had the least security concerns, but nevertheless have to make basic preparations for any potential threat in the long term. Unless it wants to develop its own world-class naval and air force military capability, Singapore has to participate in US President George W. Bush's Asian military strategy.
This will link the Indian Ocean with the Pacific through the Malacca Strait -- from the US naval base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, past Singapore and up to Japan in the northeast. Singapore will hold joint military exercises with the US, opening up major ports for large US warships, including aircraft carriers. This is likely to severely anger China, but if Singapore is to guarantee its continued existence and development, it will need to join in military programs with other free, democratic governments.
Three years ago, without any apparent threat looming over it, Singapore announced its intention to purchase the latest fighter jets from the US at a cost of US$2 billion. It also said that it was interested in procuring F-15s from Boeing and F-16s from Lockheed Martin. At the same time, the US State Department said that Singapore would be able to get 12 Apache helicopters together with any needed components. The price for these was US$620 million.
Singapore is a tiny state, but compared to her defense budget of NT$146 billion last year, Taiwan's was only NT$265 billion. If you factor in the difference in the size of population, territory, the state budget, and the fact that China is constantly applying pressure and could attack at any moment, how can you quibble about a paltry NT$33 billion a year?
It is natural to want peace. The only battles Taiwan has fought over the years are those to secure its own national sovereignty and protect the rights of its people. We have never shown any intention of invading any other country, and are constantly having to deal with the threat from China. The possession of defensive weapons is imperative, and the only way Taiwan can continue to defend itself is if it can upgrade its military capability through this arms procurement.
Before World War II, former UK prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who would never leave his house without an umbrella regardless of whether it was raining or not, tried again and again to maintain peace and refused to act as Adolf Hitler invaded neighboring countries, such as Austria and Czechoslovakia. This led to the Luftwaffe's bombardment of London, with bombs raining down on the capital every second of every minute for 24 hours, trying to wear the city down.
This was how Hitler responded to Chamberlain's calls for peace. Now the academics from Academia Sinica, lodged high in their ivory tower, seem oblivious to the transparent scheming of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in its plan to reduce Taiwan to a mere local government under their control -- something that even the person on the street is aware of.
The current arms procurement plan has been devised to counter China's upgrading of its modern warships, Kilo-class submarines and Sukhoi jet fighters. As the need to purchase these weapons originated in China, any protest march would be better held in Beijing. If this happened, we might well see people like Lao Sze-kwang (勞思光) and General Hsu Li-nung (許歷農) finding themselves arrested, and myself, or other members of the Taiwan Southern Society (南社) would be appealing to the international community to see that these individuals did not fall victim to abuses, as part of our obligation to ensure the preservation of universal human rights.
Cheng Ying-yao is a professor in the Graduate Institute of Education of National Sun Yat-sen University; Lee Chung-pan is a professor in the department of marine environment and engineering; Kuo Feng-yang is a professor in the department of information management and Chen Yang-yih is director of the department of marine environment and engineering. Hsiao Hsin-yi is a professor in the department of General Education of Kaohsiung Medical University and Chen Cheng-chung is an assistant professor in the department of medical sociology at the university. Shen Chien-chuan is an assistant professor in the College of Marine Engineering of National Kaohsiung Marine University. Chiang Wei-wen is an assistant professor in the department of Taiwanese literature at National Cheng Kung University. Hu Wei-wen is an assistant professor in the department of vehicle engineering at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology. Lin Tie-hsiung is an assistant professor in the department of Civil and Ecological Engineering at I-Shou University. Wang Yi-feng is an assistant professor in the department of leisure management at Southern Taiwanese University of Technology. Chen Shun-sheng is a professor of neurology.
TRANSLATED BY PAUL COOPER
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