The US should sell Taiwan the weapons it requires to deter Chinese aggression, former National Security Council deputy secretary-general Parris Chang (張旭成) said on Wednesday in Washington.
“Taiwan has lots of defense needs in the face of the growing threat from China,” he told a roundtable discussion hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Chang was part of a delegation of senior former officials from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) visiting the US for talks with members of the US Congress, think tanks and foreign policy experts.
“We have heard lots of talk about US concerns over Taiwan’s defense needs, but we need action,” Chang said.
He said it is important for the US to know that China is not its friend.
Chang called for robust US-Taiwan defense cooperation so that Taiwan “can truly be free from intimidation.”
He pleaded for the administration of US President Barack Obama to sell Taiwan advanced fighter jets, diesel-electric submarines and improved missile technology.
Chang also urged Washington to improve and increase high-level military dialogue between the two nations.
Chang said he acknowledges that the US has stopped making diesel-electric submarines, but added: “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
He said the US could buy submarines from Japan, upgrade them, equip them with new systems and then sell them to Taiwan.
It would take a decade for Taiwan to build its own submarines, while going the Japan route might only take four years, Chang said.
“We really need this deterrent weapon and we hope our message will get to the [US President Barack Obama’s] administration, because this is the one thing that would show the US really cares, is trying to help and is not just talking,” he said.
Chang said the delegation, which includes former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former minister of national defense Michael Tsai (蔡明憲), has already talked with members of the US Congress, urging them to attend the inauguration of president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
“We would like to see the Obama administration send a high-ranking delegation to attend the inauguration — it would mean a great deal to Taiwan,” he said.
Chang said that Taiwan was facing “considerable pressure” from China in the wake of Tsai’s election.
“The Chinese want her to say in her inaugural speech that she will accept the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ and will accept the ‘one China’ principle — this I am sure she will not do,” he said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
A man in Tainan has been cleared on charges of public insult after giving the middle finger during a road rage incident, as judges deemed the gesture was made “briefly to express negative feelings.” In last week’s ruling at the High Court’s Tainan branch, judges acquitted a driver, surnamed Cheng (程), for an incident along Tainan’s Nanmen Road in September 2023, when Cheng had spotted a place to park his car in an adjacent lane. Cheng slowed down his vehicle to go into reverse, to back into the parking spot, but the car behind followed too closely, as its driver thought Cheng
DEFENSE: The purpose of the exercises is to identify strategies for the government to control risks during tensions, prevent war and bolster national resilience A tabletop exercise series has begun simulating possible scenarios if the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched a war against Taiwan in the guise of a military exercise. The exercise series is jointly organized by National Chengchi University’s Institute of International Relations, Taiwan Center for Security Studies and Asia-Pacific Policy Research Association. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Yeong-kang (陳永康), former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director William Stanton and Taiwan Center for Security Studies director Liu Fu-kuo (劉復國) attended the event in Taipei yesterday. Scenarios that would be simulated include changing political circumstances in the US during US President Donald Trump’s tenure
RSS