Taiwan has to demonstrate that it is determined to defend itself to the new US administration, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today when asked about a potential defense budget cut.
When asked whether a three-percent budget cut being proposed by the Taiwan People’s Party would convey a wrong message to Taiwan’s allies, Koo said it would affect the military’s operation and investment projects.
The ministry hopes its NT$476 billion (US$14.46 billion) budget could be passed in its entirety in order to signify to the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump that Taiwan is determined to defend itself, he said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-te, Taipei Times
Regarding the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposal to suspend NT$1.8 billion of the ministry’s NT$2 billion budget for the indigenous defense submarine program, Koo said he had “made a promise” that the ministry would only use the budget after the Hai Kun (海鯤), or Narwhal, passes the sea acceptance test which is expected to be held in April, so the ministry does not want the budget to be frozen or slashed.
Speaking about a recent incident in which a Chinese-linked ship was suspected of damaging one of Taiwan’s undersea cables, Koo said Taiwan will dispatch its navy if necessary to help the coast guard respond to any suspicious activity near undersea communication cables.
The authorities said a ship owned by a Hong Kong company but registered in both Cameroon and Tanzania damaged a cable to the north of the island earlier this month, although it says it has not been able to verify the ship's intentions and was unable to board it due to bad weather.
The ship's owner has denied involvement, and China's government has said Taiwan was making up accusations before the facts were clear.
The incident has particularly alarmed Taiwan given it has repeatedly complained about "grey-zone" Chinese activities around it, which are intended to pressure Taiwan without direct confrontation such as balloon overflights and sand dredging.
Speaking to reporters at parliament, Koo said the armed forces would closely coordinate with the coast guard and help monitor areas where sea cables are located.
"Once something happens, the coast guard will go out first, and if needed the navy will immediately cooperate if a response is required," he added.
Also speaking to the media at parliament, National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said the government has already activated a mechanism with "international friends" to exchange information about Chinese "grey-zone" maritime activities, though he did not provide details.
Taiwan's focus will be on ships carrying flags of convenience — those registered in countries other than the one where their actual owner is based in — and how China might be using them in the waters around Taiwan, Tsai said.
The authorities have pointed to similarities between what it experienced and damage to undersea cables in the Baltic Sea following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Last week, the government said Chinese ships flying flags of convenience have "the mark of evil about them."
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
RSS