Taiwan’s military will be able to withstand a Chinese attack for one month, Minister of National Defense Yen Ming (嚴明) told the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee yesterday.
Yen was responding to a question from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌) about how well the military would be able to withstand a full-scale attack by China without help from the US.
Prompted by a pessimistic article written by University of Chicago political science professor John Mearsheimer, titled “Say Goodbye to Taiwan,” Hsueh asked Yen whether the military has built up an adequate defense capability over the years.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Before Yen could answer, a military officer standing next to him told the minister “about 21 to 28 days” — a comment that was picked up by the legislature’s video-on-demand system.
However, Yen told Hsueh that the military could withstand an assault for “at least one month.”
“How great you are,” Hsueh responded.
Hsueh said that the most common publicly stated estimate about the length of Taiwanese resistance to a Chinese attack until US help arrives was two weeks — made when Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明) and Lee Jye (李傑) were defense ministers during the former DPP administration.
Tang served from 2002 to 2004 and Lee from 2004 to 2007.
Pressed by Hsueh to specify the improvements the military has made since the DPP administration, Yen said that the estimate that the military was able to deal with China in an event of war “for 30 days” was based on conclusions drawn from various war games.
Yen was also asked by several lawmakers about how the ministry would respond to China’s announcement that it would increase its military spending this year by 12.2 percent to 808.23 billion yuan (US$131 billion), twice the size of Taiwan’s entire annual government budget.
Taiwan is not competing with China in an arms race, but has been developing a military force with “effective deterrence, resolute defense” capabilities and forged ahead with a variety of asymmetrical instruments of power, such as information and electronic warfare capabilities, Yen said.
The military has the ability to defend the country and the people, he said.
“Any change in whatever kind of scenario [you can think of] will not endanger people’s lives or the property,” Yen added.
The defense ministry is planning to submit a formal request to the US for assistance in acquiring submarines because “submarines are of great importance in building up effective military deterrence,” he said.
The government would continue its efforts to purchase submarines from the US even as it continues talks with Washington about technology transfers to help Taiwan jumpstart its own sub program.
“The initial response [to the technology transfer request] has been positive. They will assist us in meeting our goal,” Yen said in response to questions from DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴).
He brushed off lawmakers’ concerns about the move from military conscription to an all-volunteer force given the low recruitment numbers, saying that the military would stick to plans to downsize to between 170,000 and 190,000 personnel from the current 215,000 over a five-year period beginning next year.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said he learned from military sources that the planned cuts were not based on an assessment of the nation’s defense needs because the assessment will not be finished until the end of this year.
Yen denied this, saying that the ministry had gone through all the necessary procedures to calculate the force size required to defend the country before it decided to downsize troop numbers.
BAIL APPEALS: The former vice premier was ordered to be held incommunicado despite twice being granted bail and paying a total of NT$12 million in bond The Taoyuan District Court yesterday ordered the detention of former vice premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), who is being investigated for alleged corruption while serving as Taoyuan mayor from December 2014 to December 2022, and that he be held incommunicado. The court made the ruling during a bail hearing after prosecutors appealed its bail ruling twice. Cheng on Saturday was released after posting bail of NT$5 million (US$153,818). However, after prosecutors lodged an appeal, the High Court on Monday revoked the original ruling and ordered the Taoyuan District Court to hold another bail hearing. On Tuesday, the district court granted bail to Cheng a second
The Thai government on Friday announced that Taiwanese would be allowed to stay in the country for up to 60 days per entry, under the Southeast Asian country’s visa-free program starting from today. Taiwan is among 93 countries included in the Thai visa-waiver program, which has been expanded from 57 countries, with the visa-exempt entry extended from 30 to 60 days. After taking office last year, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has vowed to grant more visa waivers to foreign travelers as part of efforts to stimulate tourism. The expanded visa-waiver program was on Friday signed by Thai Minister of the Interior Anutin
PEACE AND SECURITY: China’s military ambitions present ‘the greatest strategic challenge to Japan and the world, Japan’s annual defense white paper said yesterday Japan yesterday warned that China risked escalating tensions with Taiwan with an increase in military exercises that appeared aimed in part at readying Beijing’s forces for a possible invasion. Japan’s annual assessment of security threats, including those posed by China, North Korea and Russia, comes as Taiwan closely monitors Chinese People’s Liberation Army air and sea exercises, including one with the Shandong aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. The drills are the latest in a series including maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait last year that a senior US general said would be key to any invasion. “Because of that increase in military activity,
HAN KUANG: The exercises, which are to run from July 22 to 26, will feature unscripted war games and a decentralized command and control structure, military officers said The armed forces would for the first time test new rules of engagement (ROE) at this month’s annual Han Kuang exercises, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. The exercises, which are to run from July 22 to 26, will feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure, military officers told a news conference in Taipei. ROE cards would be issued to select combat troops to test their ability to function without tight control, they said. The most recent edition of the rules was published last year, they said. One of the cards’ two templates identifies enemy targets that soldiers