Taiwan is preparing a shopping list of weapons systems it wants to buy from the U.S. The annual U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference convened yesterday (Taipei Times observes that the conference is chaired by neo-con former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz) and, in his keynote address, Taiwan Vice Defense Minister Chang Guan-chung called on the United States to continue providing Taiwan with weapons to meet its defense needs, reported Focus Taiwan news agency.
Chang said that over the past few months, aircraft from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been entering Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, and flying close to Taiwan’s southwest coast. “Those provocative actions are aimed at intimidating Taiwan and creating a new routine that gradually deviates from the norm in a bid to squash Taiwan’s defense capabilities,” he told the forum via video conferencing.
In light of the growing threat from China, Chang said, he hoped the U.S. would consider “the unique operational environment and geographical features of the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan proper and provide us with weapons and equipment that meet our operational requirements.” This would allow Taiwan to “better manage the battlefield and increase the cost of an invasion of Taiwan, thus serving as a deterrent,” he said.
Reuters reported last night that the Taiwan Defense Ministry reports that intercepts of PLA aircraft this year are already more than double the total for all of last year. In a report to parliament, seen by Reuters, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said, that so far this year, the air force had scrambled 4,132 times, up 129% compared to all of last year, according to Reuters calculations. China “is trying to use unilateral military actions to change the security status quo in the Taiwan Strait, and at the same time is testing our response, increasing pressure on our air defenses and shrinking our space for activity,” it said.
