The US has announced it will not sell Taiwan F-16C/Ds, but will upgrade its F-16A/Bs. Taiwan’s fighter jets are old, while the capabilities of China’s jets keep improving, expanding the gap between China’s and Taiwan’s air forces. The US arms package is like a short rain after a long drought — it won’t end the drought, but it will bring short-term relief. Taiwan may be unhappy about the deal, but must accept it.
The Ministry of National Defense (MND), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Presidential Office and the Cabinet applauded the US’ decision. A pleased President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) tried to claim credit, saying the arms purchase budget since he took office has exceeded that of former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) 12 years in office and former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) eight years in office. He also said this proves he has done more to improve the military’s war preparedness than Lee and Chen together.
Trying to prove that Ma is focusing on national defense merely by pointing to the arms procurement budget does not reveal the full extent of the government’s national defense policies.
During Lee’s time in office, the US was not Taiwan’s only arms source — France provided Mirage jets and Lafayette-class frigates, while Germany provided minesweepers. Lee’s presidency was also the high point for domestic arms development, with the production of eight Cheng Kung-class frigates and 130 Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF), which laid the groundwork for Taiwan’s current national defense.
Because international arms purchase channels dried up during the Chen presidency, arms procurement focused on the US. Kidd-class frigates and long-range early warning radar systems are the most well-known purchases, but the purchase of Patriot PAC-3 missiles, diesel-powered submarines and anti-submarine aircraft was blocked dozens of times in the legislature by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) because of political infighting. The US might have been prepared to sell these weapons systems, but the chaotic Taiwanese legislative situation forced Washington to stand by and wait.
First, the KMT tied the hands of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government and blocked the military upgrades, and now it is bragging that it has purchased more arms than the previous two administrations. That is shameful.
Although the US has sold a total of US$18 billion in defense-related items to the Ma administration, a closer look shows that whether it be Black Hawk helicopters, Apache attack helicopters or Patriot PAC-3 missiles, the procurement applications had been initiated by the DPP government. However, following the Typhoon Morakot disaster in August 2009, Taiwan’s lack of large helicopters not only caused the US to send helicopters to assist in the rescue effort, Washington also announced not long after that it had agreed to sell helicopters to Taiwan. In other words, Ma reaped the benefits of what others had sowed.
The Ma administration has been strongly criticized for neglecting national defense and is now making a big propaganda number of the US’ decision to upgrade our aging fighter jets. Although the government had budgeted a mere NT$2 million (US$65,700) for the purchase of F-16C/Ds, it is bragging about its accomplishments by only comparing how much the previous two administrations had spent on arms procurement, which is deception at its worst.
Governmental policy implementation is a continuous process: The Chen administration reaped the benefits of the Lee administration’s work and the Ma administration is now reaping the benefits of the Chen administration’s work. It’s time Ma started thinking about what his administration will be able to leave for the next administration.
The first Donald Trump term was a boon for Taiwan. The administration regularized the arms sales process and enhanced bilateral ties. Taipei will not be so fortunate the second time around. Given recent events, Taiwan must proceed with the assumption that it cannot count on the United States to defend it — diplomatically or militarily — during the next four years. Early indications suggested otherwise. The nomination of Marco Rubio as US Secretary of State and the appointment of Mike Waltz as the national security advisor, both of whom have expressed full-throated support for Taiwan in the past, raised hopes that
Whether in terms of market commonality or resource similarity, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co is the biggest competitor of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). The two companies have agreed to set up factories in the US and are also recipients of subsidies from the US CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law by former US president Joe Biden. However, changes in the market competitiveness of the two companies clearly reveal the context behind TSMC’s investments in the US. As US semiconductor giant Intel Corp has faced continuous delays developing its advanced processes, the world’s two major wafer foundries, TSMC and
Authorities last week revoked the residency permit of a Chinese social media influencer surnamed Liu (劉), better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), who has more than 440,000 followers online and is living in Taiwan with a marriage-based residency permit, for her “reunification by force” comments. She was asked to leave the country in 10 days. The National Immigration Agency (NIA) on Tuesday last week announced the decision, citing the influencer’s several controversial public comments, including saying that “China does not need any other reason to reunify Taiwan with force” and “why is it [China] hesitant
We are witnessing a sea change in the government’s approach to China, from one of reasonable, low-key reluctance at rocking the boat to a collapse of pretense over and patience in Beijing’s willful intransigence. Finally, we are seeing a more common sense approach in the face of active shows of hostility from a foreign power. According to Article 2 of the 2020 Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), a “foreign hostile force” is defined as “countries, political entities or groups that are at war with or are engaged in a military standoff with the Republic of China [ROC]. The same stipulation applies to
RSS