Taiwan’s military leaders have launched a behind-the-scenes push for a NT$400 billion (US$13.34 billion) defense budget next year due to China’s increased military intimidation, a high-ranking official said yesterday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that lawmakers had trimmed this year’s military budget from a proposed NT$372.6 billion to NT$367.6 billion before a surge in Chinese activity drove up the military’s operational costs.
Defense spending on fuel, maintenance and replacement parts has skyrocketed due to the numerous missions to intercept Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft and ships, they said, adding that reserve funds have been activated multiple times this year.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
Last month, the Executive Yuan indicated its intent to boost the defense budget — which averaged 3 precent of GDP over the past five years — to 4.09 percent next year, which would add more than NT$15 billion to national defense, the official said.
Military leaders deem even this sum to be inadequate to meet the country’s need to augment its forces, as China’s drills now constitute a direct threat to national security, the source said.
The leaders believe that Taiwan should adopt emergency combat preparedness measures, a term encompassing accelerated arms procurement and other actions, the official said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
In 1996, then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) ordered the implementation of the measures in response to the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, they said.
The measures included medium-range surface-to-air missiles being converted into short-range surface-to-surface missiles and then rapidly deployed, and lease-then-buy deals for US-made electronic equipment and arms, they said.
Proponents of the combat preparedness measures believe the government must raise at least NT$400 billion for the military to implement them today with reasonable confidence of success, the official said.
The Ministry of National Defense is to submit its assessment of the China threat and the military’s current and future needs to the legislature with the Cabinet’s general budget proposal.
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