Taipei, Sept. 14 (CNA) Republic of China Defense Minister Tang Fei said on Tuesday that Taiwan will not face a large-scale or immediate military threat from mainland China in the short term, but added that small-scale provocative military moves are unavoidable.
In an interview with CNA, Tang said the current mainland tri-services joint military exercises in the Guangzhou Military Region poses little threat to Taiwan.
Rather, he noted, the ROC military is paying more attention to amphibious landing exercises being held in the Zhoushan archipelago off the mainland coast in the Taiwan Strait.
Tang pointed out that one of the mainland's military options against Taiwan would be to paralyze Taiwan's transportation system with missiles and then occupy some offshore islands, as a way of forcing Taiwan to the negotiating table.
However, the defense minister was quick to stress that Taiwan has worked out various response measures to counter any abrupt military threat from the mainland.
He said he believes that military action would be a last resort for Beijing in its dealings with Taiwan, as it would have to take international reaction and its own economic development into consideration.
Regarding the buildup of a missile defense system for Taiwan, Tang termed this as one of the most urgent tasks for improving the island's defense network.
He said that after two years of study, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) has forged a policy to establish a lower-level missile defense system, covering defense against ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as conventional air attacks.
In order to build up this defense system, Tang said the MND plans to seek a special budget from the Executive Yuan totaling NT$300 billion (about US$9.5 billion) over about 10 years.
He also stressed the need to increase the country's defense budget from the present 2.6 percent of the gross national product to 3percent-3.5 percent from 2001. (By Victor Lai)
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