Tycoon Robert Tsao (曹興誠) has pledged funding for the domestic production of 1 million combat drones to defend Taiwan in the event of military conflict with China.
In an interview published by the Financial Times on Wednesday, Tsao said that he had spoken with drone manufacturers in Taiwan about setting up an industry alliance to research and develop combat drones at a lower cost.
The 1 million drones would be armed and the plan is to have them operational in the next two to three years, he said in the interview.
Photo: screen grab from Hsiao-chun Taiwan PLUS
The drones would be on the front line in Taiwan’s defense if the Chinese military were to launch an amphibious assault, he said, adding that their weapons would target enemy troops and Chinese warships if they tried to land on Taiwan’s beaches.
Tsao, who founded semiconductor maker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), on Sept. 1 said that he would donate NT$3 billion (US$94.7 million) to bolster Taiwan’s defense against the threat of a Chinese military invasion.
Among Tsao’s plans were NT$600 million to fund the Kuma Academy to set up local militia units — or “black bear warriors” — training them in combat tactics, guerrilla warfare, cognitive warfare and first aid.
He also promised NT$400 million to train 300,000 “sharpshooters” as another line of defense against Chinese troops.
In a separate interview with Deutsche Welle published on Wednesday, Tsao said that when he conducted UMC business in China, he told top Chinese government officials that “talk of ‘one country, two systems’ is a plot to deceive” Taiwanese.
“Beijing’s leadership touted the ‘one country, two systems’ formula for Taiwan, but they believed that the Republic of China was dead, so the rhetoric was essentially directed at a ‘ghost,’” he said.
China pushed through an extradition law for Hong Kong in 2019 designed to allow suspects to be prosecuted in mainland China, prompting vehement protests among Hong Kongers, he said.
The law was ultimately not implemented.
“Beijing’s leaders saw the protests as riots against Chinese authority,” he said. “At that time, I had dinner with a top Chinese official. He told me the way to proceed was to hire hooligans to work with police officers to beat up protesters, then Hong Kongers would not defy the Chinese government.”
“So this was done,” he said. “On July 21, 2019, there was the Yuen Long attack, during which police deployed hooligans with batons and clubs who indiscriminately assaulted protesters.”
“Before that, I did not believe they would do such a thing,” Tsao said.
“Seeing what happened in Hong Kong and the violent suppression of the people was shocking,” he said. “I felt ashamed to have kept company” with the Chinese officals.
“It showed the true face of the Chinese Communist Party, a hooligan regime conducting violence against ordinary people,” he said. “If it cannot get its way, its solution is to hire hooligans to beat people up.”
“People in Hong Kong used peaceful means at street events to express their views, but the Chinese government used cruel means of suppression, including beatings. It really made me angry. So I decided to never go to China, Hong Kong or Macau again,” he said.
“Taiwanese must watch out,” he said. “If we get into such a situation, then it will be too late, there is no way back to freedom and democracy.”
China’s nationalism defies the progress of civilization, while Taiwan has advanced with civilization, “as Taiwan values reason, science, progress, peace, human rights, the rule of law and democracy,” he said. “That is why we cannot be unified with China.”
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RSS