Taiwan
keeping up on defense: report
CAPABILITIES: Despite a
continuing Chinese military buildup, recent expenditures and arms acquisitions
in Taiwan have strengthened its ability to defend itself
By Charles Snyder
STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
Wednesday, Mar 05, 2008, Page 1
China's military advantage in the Taiwan Strait continues to grow, but the
Legislative Yuan's decision last year to boost defense spending will help right
the balance, the Pentagon said in its annual review of China's military released
in Washington on Monday.
China has been able to improve its overall military capabilities and the
capabilities of its forces facing Taiwan, and continues to build up its array of
short-range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan, the report said.
But the document disagrees sharply with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on the
number of those missiles.
US military analysts now say that China has deployed between 990 and 1,070
missiles against Taiwan, up from the 875 to 975 it estimated in last year's
report. China is increasing the number of missiles by more than 100 a year, it
says.
But that is still far below the more than 1,300 missiles that Chen has cited in
statements over the past year.
CONCERNS
In a press briefing accompanying the release of the report, the Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense for East Asia, David Sedney, said the missile deployment is
"clearly an issue that we're very concerned about and which we have raised very
strongly and consistently at high levels over the years with the Chinese."
But he had praise for Taiwan for increasing defense spending in response to the
growing Chinese threat.
"We were very pleased this year that Taiwan passed ... in December a 2008 budget
which increased rather substantially the amount of money and the percentage of
its resources that Taiwan will be spending in its own defense. And we think
that's very important," Sedney said.
PROCUREMENT
He said a near-record number of planned US arms sales to Taiwan were announced
last year.
Those included 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft and related items worth US$1.96
billion, state-of-the-art upgrades to Taiwan's Patriot 2 anti-missile batteries
worth US$939 million, and several hundred AMRAAM and Maverick missiles for use
with Taiwan's F-16 fighters worth US$421 million.
The report says the legislative action, the US arms sales commitments and recent
steps the Taiwan military has taken to improve its operational capabilities
"have, on the whole, reinforced Taiwan's natural defensive advantages in the
face of Beijing's continuing military buildup."
"We've made a number of notifications ... about the weapons systems Taiwan will
be acquiring and we think those will help address the issues of the balance in
the Taiwan Straits [sic]," Sedney said.
"But that certainly won't address it completely because China continues both its
modernization and its deployment of forces based on Taiwan ... and we continue
to not just watch it carefully but to take all appropriate measures that we have
to do to be prepared for any eventuality," he said.
Asked about figures in this and last year's reports that show an actual decline
in the number of Chinese ground forces deployed in the Taiwan Strait area, as
well as a sharp decline in the number of bombers and fighters within range of
Taiwan, Sedney downplayed the changes.
"Those are things that can change very rapidly," he said. "The Chinese have a
lot of resources throughout the country which they can deploy in the Taiwan
Strait area and which they practice deploying on a regular basis."
"So if you're looking at the Taiwan Strait, we wouldn't look just at any one
point in time. You know, we do look at what's based there. But it's important to
remember there's even a larger number of assets there," he said.
David Helvey, the director of China, Taiwan and Mongolia affairs for the
US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, who also addressed the
briefing, added to Sedney's comments.
"As China's military forces improve ... you see the retirement of older
platforms and airframes. So in some cases, you may see a decrement in total
numbers, but you have a higher percentage of much more capable platforms and
systems," Helvey said.
In the report, the Pentagon also noted favorably the development of the Hsiung
Feng IIE cruise missile, announced during the Han Kuang exercise in April, with
a 1,000km range that enables it to reach Hong Kong and Shanghai.
RESPONSE
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday urged the international community
to pay close attention to China's rapid military buildup, saying the Taiwan
Strait has become one of the major flashpoints in the world because of Beijing's
military rise.
In its official statement, MAC said the Chinese arms expansion has not only
tipped the balance of power in the East Asia, but also threatened the stability
in the Pacific region.
Furthermore, Taiwan has reasons to believe that Beijing still views Taiwan as
its greatest enemy. Such animosity is evident in the number of missiles,
increasing at a rate of 100 missiles per year, pointed at the country.
MAC called on the international community to raise suspicion about the true
intention behind Beijing's military buildup.
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| LIFTING THE
SPIRITS A stripper dances at the funeral of a recently deceased 103-year-old man surnamed Tsai yesterday in Chingshui Township, Taichung County. The stripper was hired by the children of the deceased in accordance with their father's wishes.
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Ma, Siew's
cross-strait market talk is just talk
By Lu Shih-hsiang
盧世祥
Wednesday, Mar 05, 2008, Page 8
After losing the presidential election in 2000, Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) founded the
Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation (兩岸共同經濟基金會) and asked for feedback. As a
veteran of economics and media, I informed "Smiling Siew" that the problems
confronting cross-strait peace and prosperity lie with China rather than Taiwan:
He needed to convince Beijing, not Taipei.
Several months ago, I publicly questioned Siew on any positive response from
China that the foundation has received since its inception nearly seven years
ago. This "chief architect of economic strategies" -- as Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) calls him -- replied that
the common market was mentioned in the report of the 2005 meeting between former
KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤). Searching the
report, I found that under the premise of "one China," the words "cross-strait
common market" did indeed appear in a brief section on cross-strait exchange and
cooperation.
Siew, a former premier and now a vice-presidential candidate, must realize how
ridiculous China's perfunctory response was to the fruits of his seven years of
labor. Sadly, Siew and Ma are touting this supposed "vision" in anticipation of
public acceptance.
The "cross-strait common market" derived its inspiration from the EU. Areas of
cooperation in the EU span trade, currency, foreign policy, national defense and
public welfare to citizenship. The EU is equipped with a parliament, courts and
a central bank. The Schengen Agreement further eliminated border controls
between certain states.
The economic and then political amalgamation in Europe relied on important
foundations. The states possessed common values, such as peace, democracy, rule
of law and respect for human rights. The coming together of these states was
voluntary, with approval by each country's parliament or by referendum.
As for the euro, common defense interests or citizenship policies, member states
have the right to non-participation. And while EU states vary in size and
wealth, they are entirely equal: All EU laws and important documents are
available in the languages of the member nations and there are no instances of
large states bullying small states in the legislative process.
To apply the EU model to the cross-strait situation is entirely inappropriate.
Principles of peace, human rights, free will and equality are entirely missing
in the cross-strait situation. Yet the Siew-style "common market" exists under
the illusory premise of "each representing its own China." Also, its goals of
direct travel, economic agreement and customs and currency union are only
wishful thinking. How can the EU model be applied when China refuses to
negotiate even a memorandum of understanding for financial cooperation?
Even worse is the fact that since Siew began making frequent trips to China, he
has grown silent on issues of equality and security that were frequently
mentioned when he originally began to promote cross-strait relations.
In the heat of the campaign, the Siew-style common market has been strongly
criticized. Ma and Siew have resorted to revisionism by claiming the scheme does
not apply to labor or agricultural produce. Later, they disavowed the "one China
market" that they themselves promoted. The pair has even gone so far as to claim
the "cross-strait common market" was never a part of their platform.
These inconsistencies have become a characteristic of Siew and Ma's tactics
under pressure. The frequent revisions to their political platform emphasize the
degree of their duplicity. Can the Taiwanese public be so easily fooled?
Lu Shih-hsiang is an adviser to the
Taipei Times.