There was an atmosphere of “optimistic expectation” at the first day of the Taiwan-US Defense Industry Symposium yesterday, although Taiwanese firms need to do more to enhance security, said Institute for National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), who attended the closed-door event.
The symposium is held in Taiwan during the first half of each year, followed by a symposium in the US in the second half of the year.
The opening ceremony was attended by former US Marine Corps Forces, Pacific commander Steven Rudder and US-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Domestic think tanks and defense vendors attended as well, including the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, Aerospace Industrial Development Corp and GEOSAT Aerospace and Technology Inc.
Twenty-seven US defense contractors participated in the event — two more than a year ago — including Lockheed Martin Corp, Raytheon Co, BAE Systems PLC, AeroVironment Inc and Northrop Grumman.
Su said in an interview that the symposium is a semi-official industrial cooperative platform that has operated for more than two decades.
Its content is declared only by the organizer, to protect business secrets and promote mutual trust between the Taiwanese and US governments.
“The opportunity for collaboration between governments is ephemeral,” Su said.
Mutual trust is the cornerstone of industrial collaboration, he added.
Su also said that while Taiwan has the fundamental technologies it needs, its capabilities in corporate security and governance such as confidentiality protection, security management, counterintelligence and anti-infiltration still need to be enhanced.
Taiwan has to conform to international regulations in every aspect, including the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Good and Technologies, and the Industrial Safety Management Regulations, he said.
That would build mutual trust and allow Taiwan to share relevant techniques in industrial collaboration with other democratic nations, further increasing its own production capacity and defending itself in line with other democratic nations against provocations from Russia and China, he added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and