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Taiwan to continue upgrading defense capability: Presidential Office

ROC Central News Agency

2010/08/18 23:16:08

Taipei, Aug. 18 (CNA) The government has been closely monitoring China's military build-up and will not halt its efforts to upgrade the nation's defense capability even as it seeks to further reduce tensions across the Taiwan Strait, the Presidential Office said Wednesday.

"There is no need for the people to worry about a reported cross-strait military imbalance in favor of China, " Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang said.

He was responding to the opposition's accusation of "inaction" on the part of the Presidential Office after a U.S Pentagon report the previous day warned of China's continued military build-up.

Lo said that cross-strait military imbalance is a structural problem that dates back prior to 2008 when the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was in power.

In its political posturing, the DPP administration never stopped provoking and confronting China, which led to the Taiwan Strait becoming one of two "flash points" in east Asia, Lo said.

President Ma, on the other hand, has spared no effort to reduce cross-strait hostility since he took office in 2008 and has forged 14 agreements with China to increase exchanges between the two sides, Lo said.

"President Ma has successfully turned the flash point in the strait into 'an avenue of peace and prosperity, ' an achievement that has been recognized by the United States, Japan, the European Union, and other countries around the world," Lo said.

Besides, since Ma took office, the U.S. government has approved the sale of two arms packages to Taiwan, valued at US$13 billion, which has contributed greatly to upgrading the country's defense capability, he said.

Quoting the ancient Chinese tactician Sun Tsu who said "the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans, " Lo said that the best way to put an end to conflict is "to replace confrontation with engagement, as the Ma administration has done.

Taiwan will strive to build a "lean but mean" military as a deterrent to war, instead of engaging in an arms race with China, he said. (By Li Garfie & Bear Lee ) Enditem/ pc