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EDITORIAL: Taking the
credit, leaving the scraps
The US has announced it will not sell Taiwan F-16C/Ds, but will upgrade its
F-16A/Bs. Taiwan’s fighter jets are old, while the capabilities of China’s jets
keep improving, expanding the gap between China’s and Taiwan’s air forces. The
US arms package is like a short rain after a long drought — it won’t end the
drought, but it will bring short-term relief. Taiwan may be unhappy about the
deal, but must accept it.
The Ministry of National Defense (MND), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
Presidential Office and the Cabinet applauded the US’ decision. A pleased
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) tried to claim credit, saying the arms purchase
budget since he took office has exceeded that of former president Lee Teng-hui’s
(李登輝) 12 years in office and former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) eight years
in office. He also said this proves he has done more to improve the military’s
war preparedness than Lee and Chen together.
Trying to prove that Ma is focusing on national defense merely by pointing to
the arms procurement budget does not reveal the full extent of the government’s
national defense policies.
During Lee’s time in office, the US was not Taiwan’s only arms source — France
provided Mirage jets and Lafayette-class frigates, while Germany provided
minesweepers. Lee’s presidency was also the high point for domestic arms
development, with the production of eight Cheng Kung-class frigates and 130
Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF), which laid the groundwork for Taiwan’s
current national defense.
Because international arms purchase channels dried up during the Chen
presidency, arms procurement focused on the US. Kidd-class frigates and
long-range early warning radar systems are the most well-known purchases, but
the purchase of Patriot PAC-3 missiles, diesel-powered submarines and
anti-submarine aircraft was blocked dozens of times in the legislature by the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) because of political infighting. The US might
have been prepared to sell these weapons systems, but the chaotic Taiwanese
legislative situation forced Washington to stand by and wait.
First, the KMT tied the hands of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
government and blocked the military upgrades, and now it is bragging that it has
purchased more arms than the previous two administrations. That is shameful.
Although the US has sold a total of US$18 billion in defense-related items to
the Ma administration, a closer look shows that whether it be Black Hawk
helicopters, Apache attack helicopters or Patriot PAC-3 missiles, the
procurement applications had been initiated by the DPP government. However,
following the Typhoon Morakot disaster in August 2009, Taiwan’s lack of large
helicopters not only caused the US to send helicopters to assist in the rescue
effort, Washington also announced not long after that it had agreed to sell
helicopters to Taiwan. In other words, Ma reaped the benefits of what others had
sowed.
The Ma administration has been strongly criticized for neglecting national
defense and is now making a big propaganda number of the US’ decision to upgrade
our aging fighter jets. Although the government had budgeted a mere NT$2 million
(US$65,700) for the purchase of F-16C/Ds, it is bragging about its
accomplishments by only comparing how much the previous two administrations had
spent on arms procurement, which is deception at its worst.
Governmental policy implementation is a continuous process: The Chen
administration reaped the benefits of the Lee administration’s work and the Ma
administration is now reaping the benefits of the Chen administration’s work.
It’s time Ma started thinking about what his administration will be able to
leave for the next administration.
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