PROCUREMENT: Battle Continues to Upgrade Taiwan’s Military
August 2, 2004: As Taiwan prepares for the biggest weapons purchase in its history, resistance from both within and without continues. With President Bush’s continuing pledge to sell to Taiwan updated naval, air, and missile systems, elements in both Taipei and Beijing who oppose such a move have ratcheted-up their condemnations. Approximately 1,000 pro-communist demonstrators in Taiwan demonstrated noisily against this potential sale after it was announced in the island’s press.
In June a delegation of Taiwanese visited a Texas missile base and held talks to negotiate an arms deal worth $18 billion over the next 10-15 years. Included in this would be eight new submarines, a modified version of the Patriot anti-missile system, and ten P-3C aircraft (although they would undoubtedly be high-time airframe airplanes considering the US Navy’s ongoing problems in this area). Reportedly, the Nationalist Chinese were surprised by the head of the US Pacific Command when he suggested arming Taiwan with the highly proprietary Aegis anti-missile system, the first time in several years the delegates had heard that the US was considering such a sale. Taipei has wanted the system for years, but Washington has always denied the request because of the sensitivity of the technology and the threats and screeches from the cranky octogenarians running Beijing. Selling Taipei Aegis-equipped ships now would, some say, both benefit the US suppliers of the system while energizing the strongly pro-Taiwan wing of the Republican Party as the November US elections approach.
While Taiwan's Minister of National Defence has reiterated his desire to obtain Aegis for his country, Taiwan has also pursued an alternate course to build its own Aegis surrogate if such a sale is not possible. Three years ago, Taiwan announced the capability of building its own Aegis-equipped destroyers as long as the US would supply key software technology. At that time, Tiawan had had experience building its eight Chengkung-class frigates, based upon the US Perry-class. Perry-class frigates are designed primarily for open-ocean escort of amphibious ships and convoys and can provide limited anti-submarine and anti-cruise missile defense
In addition to the Chengkung-class frigates, as of 2001, six Lafayette-class frigates have been purchased from France and six Knox-class frigates have been leased from the US. In 2002, the US Congress approved for sale to Taiwan the US Navy’s four inactivated Kidd-class destroyers for approximately $732 million. While the 9,600 ton ex-Kidds carry formidable anti-air defenses, they are not Aegis ships and carry the less capable SM-2 missile system.
Lacking access to Aegis, Taiwan came up with the Tien Tan (Alter of Heaven) Advanced Combat System. If approved, the first ship would be commissioned in 2008 at the earliest. The ROC Navy had previously considered upgrading the eighth Cheng Kung-class missile frigate to a “mini-Aegis” capability using an upgraded AN/SPY-1 radar but found the hull was too small to accommodate the system and related weapons. Any such ship would be similar in size and configuration to Arleigh Burke- or Lafayette-class ships.
Before the latest meeting in the US, the US government had been discussing a program for Taiwan to acquire Aegis if Taipei agreed to build the ship. Such a project might be based on South Korea's KDX-3 Aegis destroyer program, providing work for both Korean and Taiwan shipyards. – K.B. Sherman
Beijing, China, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- China's drive to professionalize its military moved forward Friday with state-run media announcing the creation of the Defense Affairs Institute.
According to state-run Xinhua, the Chinese People's Liberation Army University of National Defense established a special unit, the Defense Affairs Institute, to offer training to upper echelon military officers and civilians from foreign countries.
Analysts view the move as an opportunity for the PLA to promote long-term influence with foreign military establishments via exchanges and advanced training.
Dean of the PLA National Defense University General Zhu Chenghu was quoted as saying the training of foreign officers was a "historic leap forward" and promised the new institute would be in accordance with international practice and methodologies.
The PLA started offering training and arms to foreigners in the 1950s under Mao Zedong. During the Cold War, thousands of communist recruits from Africa, Asia, and South America learned guerilla warfare tactics and Maoist ideology.
Xinhua said the new institute begins classes on Aug. 16 with the enrollment of 970 senior military officers from 40 different countries.
By Melody Chen STAFF REPORTER Sunday, Aug 08, 2004,Page 3
"The US ... wants China to consider how to make its national interests compatible with those of the US."
Chen Ming-Tong, former MAC vice chairman
Following Vice President Annette Lu's claim on Friday that Taiwan and China are in a "quasi-war" state, academics warned yesterday that cross-strait tensions remain high at a conference discussing recent military exercises conducted by China, Taiwan and the US.
"Causes for conflict have been defused, but hidden concerns still exist" since President Chen Shui-bian's inauguration on May 20, said Chang Wu-yen, professor at Tamkang University's Institute of China Studies.
Presidential advisor Chen Lung-chu chaired the conference, which was organized by the Taiwan New Century Foundation.
Along with efforts to modernize its military, China has increased its unification campaign among the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Chang said.
"It is now easier for PLA sol-diers to obtain information on the outside world through the Internet. In order to prevent the soldiers from being `polluted,' China launched media, psychological and legal wars against Taiwan," Chang said.
In the three wars, he said, Beijing attempted to demonize Taiwan's democratization, label Taiwan's constitutional reform as a move toward independence and make a unification law the legal basis for union with Taiwan, he said.
With its deep distrust of the nation's president, Beijing is watching closely to see whether the Democratic Progressive Party and its political ally, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, will win a majority of seats in the year-end legislative elections, Chang said.
"China fears Chen Shui-bian will push for amendment of the Referendum Law after the legislative elections. It is worried that the president will use the law as a tool in the 2006 constitutional re-engineering project," he said.
"In fact, if China still believes it can effectively rein in Taiwan through the US, its relationship with Taiwan can remain stable," said Chang, who visited China, the US and Canada to collect opinions concerning the issue over the past month.
Chen Ming-tong, a former Mainland Affairs Council vice chairman, said the recent visit of US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to Beijing revealed America's wish to maintain a normal relationship with China.
"The US would like to see China think about the boundary of its national interests. It particularly wants China to consider how to make its national interests compatible with those of the US," Chen Ming-tong said.
He said that the US, using a carrot-and-stick strategy with China, "has warned China not to hastily plunge into action and showed Beijing a way to go. This way will not contradict the US' national interests."
Considering the recent military exercises by China, Taiwan and the US, Wang Kung-yi, an Tamkang University associate professor at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said that only under three conditions will the coun-tries' strategic roles change.
"First, the Chinese authorities start democratization or collapse. Second, China unifies with Taiwan. Third, Taiwan declares independence," said Wang.
Lacking patience to wait for one of the three conditions to take place, a number of Beijing hawks have been calling on the Chinese authorities to launch a war against Taiwan as soon as possible, Wang said.
These hawks regard the best time to start a war with Taiwan as in 2005 or 2006. With the 2008 Olympics in mind, China would try to minimize the scale of such a war, he said, for they believe that if a war were started after 2008, its impact might be much more far-reaching.
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