Taiwan will seek to buy modern weapons from the US for self-defense only and not to spark an arms race with China, the Ministry of National Defense said on Saturday.
“We have changed the definition of ‘winning the war’ from ‘winning against our enemies’ to ‘preventing enemies from landing in Taiwan,’” the ministry said in a statement on Saturday night.
“Under this guideline, we want to build a small but strong armed force to defend our country and fend off enemy invasion,” the ministry said.
The statement was issued in response to a Japanese Defence White Paper released by the Defense Ministry on Friday.
The White Paper warned that “the military balance between China and Taiwan has changed to the advantage of China” and that China in recent years has begun to make its military capable of assuming missions other than a Taiwan contingency.
“We need to keep watch of China’s maritime activities,” the Japanese Defense Ministry said in the annual white paper.
“Given the modernization of China’s navy and air force, it is expected that their capability will expand beyond China’s adjacent waters,” it said, pointing to recent cases of Chinese vessels passing close to Japanese territorial waters.
The ministry said Taiwan would continue to seek US approval of sales of diesel submarines, military helicopters, PAC-III anti-missile systems and F-16C/D fighter aircraft.
In related news, local media yesterday cited Reserve Command sources as saying that an initial investigation launched by the ministry into an obscene video involving two male sergeants while on duty found that the incident happened three years ago as a group of sergeants from a reserve brigade were taking a training course.
A cable news channel last week aired a video showing the soldiers, wearing camouflage uniforms, possibly engaged in a sex act while about 40 other servicemen looked on and laughed.
The video sparked public outrage and drew criticism from both the governing and opposition parties, with some lawmakers threatening to cut the defense budget. The ministry later apologized for the scandal, which it said had tarnished the military’s image.
Local media yesterday cited Reserve Command sources as saying that an initial probe showed that 32 people could be investigated, though all but one have retired from the army.
The video was the latest in a series of scandals to hit the military.
A recent crackdown has led to the investigation of 114 generals over allegations of corruption and bribery for career advancement. The investigation was launched in April after a retired lieutenant general was indicted on charges of bribery, blackmail and leaking classified material.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its