The US should consider helping Taiwan build an indigenous defense industry to boost its qualitative military edge (QME), amid rising threats from China, similar to what the US has done for Israel, a local defense academic wrote in an article.
Wu Tzu-li (吳自立), a researcher at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said in an article published on Friday by the institute’s journal, Defense Security Brief, that the long-standing US commitment to maintaining Israel’s QME forms a central pillar of the Jewish state’s security strategy.
US legislation passed in 2008 defined QME as “the ability to counter and defeat any credible conventional military threat from any individual state or possible coalition of states, or from non- state actors, while sustaining minimal damages and casualties, through the use of superior military means.”
Photo: Reuters
Such means should be “possessed in sufficient quantity, including weapons, command, control, communication, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities that in their technical characteristics are superior in capability to those of such other individual or possible coalition of states or non-state actors.”
Israel has a relatively small population and territory, but is surrounded by neighbors that remain hostile toward the country.
Understanding the dangers of this quantitative disadvantage, Israel has worked to ensure that the country develops a qualitative edge: the ability to defend itself through military superiority, by heavily investing in high-quality training and equipment, with help from the US, Wu said.
The US has provided Israel with foreign aid surpassing US$1.25 trillion, with almost all of it for military assistance, Wu said.
Israel now has one of the world’s strongest armed forces, a robust domestic defense industry and is one of the largest weapons exporters in the world, he said.
The US buys weapons from Israel on occasion, and is investing in Israel’s Iron Dome, a system that is meant to intercept incoming rockets, he added.
Taiwan also faces growing military coercion from the Chinese communist regime that has significant superiority in terms of military power, despite Taiwan substantially increasing its defense spending in the past few years, Wu said.
US lawmakers have addressed this issue, Wu said, citing the introduction of a bill to the US Senate earlier this month that would increase military aid to Taiwan to bolster the country’s defenses.
The Taiwan Deterrence Act, proposed by Republican Senators Jim Risch, Mike Crapo, Bill Hagerty, Mitt Romney, John Cornyn and Marco Rubio, seeks to authorize directing US$2 billion a year from the Foreign Military Financing program to Taiwan from 2023 to 2032.
Another bill proposed earlier this month by US Senator Josh Hawley, the Arm Taiwan Act of 2021, would allow the US to authorize US$3 billion annually from 2023 through 2027 to provide assistance to Taiwan’s government, such as equipment, training and other support.
However, the proposed legislation also adds that Taiwan should in return invest more in its self-defense capabilities, Wu said.
Wu has called on the US to help Taiwan boost its QME as it did with Israel, so that Taiwan could build a stronger domestic defense industry, as Israel has.
Doing so would help quicken Taiwan’s pace in developing self-defense capabilities, Wu said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final