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.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
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