• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

PRESIDENT PLEDGES TO UPGRADE TAIWAN'S DEFENSE CAPABILITIES

ROC Central News Agency

2007-07-17 18:31:31

    Taipei, July 17 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Tuesday that Taiwan has the responsibility and obligation to upgrade its defense capabilities to contribute to regional peace and stability.

    Stressing that the country must not take lightly warnings from the United States and Japan about China's increasing military power, Chen pointed out that Japan, in its annual defense white paper released July 6, has expressed greater concern than before over the military threat posed by China.

    In the report, Japan's Ministry of Defense says that China's military power has expanded beyond its need to deal with a potential conflict across the Taiwan Strait, and Japanese Minister of Defense Yuriko Koike even warned of a possible reversal of the current situation in which Taiwan holds substantial military edge over China, Chen said.

    Chen noted that Japan's conclusion is similar to that of the U.S. Department of Defense, which also warns in its annual report on China's military power that Beijing is increasingly looking to the strategic landscape beyond Taiwan, and that current trends in China's military capabilities are a major factor in the changing East Asian military balance.

    The president made the remarks during a ceremony in which he decorated Deputy Chief of Air Force Peng Sheng-chu with the Order of Cloud and Banner with Plague and conferred the rank of general, second class on Peng Chin-ming, who was previously a lieutenant-general.

    On reports that the U.S. government has suspended its plan to sell F-16 C/D fighter jets to Taiwan to express Washington's displeasure with Taipei's move to push for a referendum on the country's bid to apply to join the United Nations under the name of "Taiwan," Chen said the budget for the procurement can be executed as soon as Taiwan obtains the letter of offer and acceptance from the United States for the fighter jets.

    In addition, the Legislative Yuan has also approved budgets for a feasibility study on the purchase of diesel-electric submarines from the United States, the purchase of submarine-hunting P3-C aircraft, and performance upgrade for Patriot PAC-2 anti-missile batteries, Chen noted.

    According to Chen, the government will continue to seek the legislature's support for subsequent procurement budgets, speed up modernization of the military, and work to achieve the goal of increasing the country's defense budget to 3 percent of gross domestic product by next year to demonstrate Taiwan's determination to improve its defense capabilities and safeguard national security.

(By Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/jnc