While attending a committee meeting at the Legislative Yuan on Sept. 30, Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) reported that since the beginning of the year, aircraft deployed by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force have entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone 217 times.
During the same period, the air force conducted 2,972 sorties to monitor and intercept Chinese warplanes, which cost NT$25.5 billion (US$880.52 million). Yen confirmed that additional funds must be allocated to the air force’s budget for the next fiscal year to compensate for the extra flying time.
Even as the nation’s finances are precarious due to economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of additional interception sorties is likely to soar to NT$30 billion. Also, front-line military personnel are becoming fatigued at a greater rate, creating a never-ending logistical nightmare.
Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil, who last month headed a delegation to Taiwan, said before leaving the nation that he hoped for more exchanges between Taiwan and the Czech Republic.
Maintaining considerable cooperation on economics and trade would enable the two nations to continue to deepen their relations. A good place to start would be the Czech Republic’s aeronautical supply chain.
The Czech Republic is a member of the European Aerospace Cluster Partnership and Czech plane maker Aero Vodochody produces the Aero L-39 Albatros jet trainer. About 2,800 L-39s have thus far been deployed by more than 30 air forces around the world.
The company also produces an updated design, the Aero L-159 ALCA, a light attack aircraft and advanced jet trainer. The L-159 has the same Honeywell/ITEC F124 turbofan engine as Taiwan’s Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF), except that the L-159 has a single engine. However, this reduces its overall cost, so that it is an absolute bargain compared with the IDF.
Introduced in 2000, the L-159 has been deployed by the Czech Air Force and purchased by Spain and Iraq. Venezuela and Bolivia had placed orders, but the US objected and the sales were aborted.
Taiwan has over several decades been developing the nation’s aeronautical industry, but local firms only perform subcontract work for large European and US companies. Cooperation with Czech aviation companies would be a winning strategy for both sides.
Aerospace Industrial Development Corp has begun testing its T-5 Brave Eagle advanced jet trainer. Relatively few of the T-5s would replace the air force’s Northrop F-5E/F Tiger II fleet of trainer aircraft, so it would not conflict with Czech designs.
As the T-5 is in research and development, with a while before mass production, a quicker option would be to bring in a mature, existing model. Doing so would be a “win-win” for foreign diplomacy and national defense.
The Czech government in 2015 approved the sale of 15 L-159 fighters to Iraq for US$30 million, or US$2 million per airplane. Rather than use the F-16 or Mirage 2000, which are US$40 million to US$50 million per plane, it would cost less to buy training and attack jet fighters that are less than one-10th of the cost and deploy those to intercept Chinese warplanes that approach Taiwanese airspace.
Affordable airplanes — with savings going to staff and operational costs — is a good way to reduce overall government spending and enhance diplomatic ties.
Chang Feng-lin is a university lecturer.
Translated by Edward Jones and Perry Svensson
Taiwanese pragmatism has long been praised when it comes to addressing Chinese attempts to erase Taiwan from the international stage. “Taipei” and the even more inaccurate and degrading “Chinese Taipei,” imposed titles required to participate in international events, are loathed by Taiwanese. That is why there was huge applause in Taiwan when Japanese public broadcaster NHK referred to the Taiwanese Olympic team as “Taiwan,” instead of “Chinese Taipei” during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. What is standard protocol for most nations — calling a national team by the name their country is commonly known by — is impossible for
China’s supreme objective in a war across the Taiwan Strait is to incorporate Taiwan as a province of the People’s Republic. It follows, therefore, that international recognition of Taiwan’s de jure independence is a consummation that China’s leaders devoutly wish to avoid. By the same token, an American strategy to deny China that objective would complicate Beijing’s calculus and deter large-scale hostilities. For decades, China has cautioned “independence means war.” The opposite is also true: “war means independence.” A comprehensive strategy of denial would guarantee an outcome of de jure independence for Taiwan in the event of Chinese invasion or
A recent Taipei Times editorial (“A targeted bilingual policy,” March 12, page 8) questioned how the Ministry of Education can justify spending NT$151 million (US$4.74 million) when the spotlighted achievements are English speech competitions and campus tours. It is a fair question, but it focuses on the wrong issue. The problem is not last year’s outcomes failing to meet the bilingual education vision; the issue is that the ministry has abandoned the program that originally justified such a large expenditure. In the early years of Bilingual 2030, the ministry’s K-12 Administration promoted the Bilingual Instruction in Select Domains Program (部分領域課程雙語教學實施計畫).
Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry spoke at the Yushan Forum in Taipei on Monday, saying that while global conflicts were causing economic strife in the world, Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP) serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region and offers strategic opportunities for small island nations such as Fiji, as well as support in the fields of public health, education, renewable energy and agricultural technology. Taiwan does not have official diplomatic relations with Fiji, but it is one of the small island nations covered by the NSP. Chaudhry said that Fiji, as a sovereign nation, should support
RSS