Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Expedited US$500m arms deal planned

Taipei Times

The administration of US President Joe Biden is preparing a US$500 million weapons package for Taiwan, using a fast-track authority that it has relied on to speed arms to Ukraine, people familiar with the matter said.

Plans for the package involve sending stockpiles of US weapons or support equipment to Taiwan under what is known as a Presidential Drawdown Authority, the people said on the condition of anonymity.

The equipment in the package was not immediately known.

Defense drills should include public

Taipei Times Editorials

The annual civil defense drill was held in Taipei on Thursday, with participants simulating responses to natural disasters and war. The Taipei Fire Department said the exercises emphasized air raid evacuation, distribution of supplies, prevention and control of infectious diseases, and disaster rescue, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported.

CNA cited Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) as saying that this year’s drills involved a scenario in which the military would be unable to provide assistance with those measures. The drills involved rescuers, volunteers, members of civil defense units and reservists, as well as 144 active and reserve alternative service members. A civil defense program with annual exercises helps ensure Taiwan’s readiness in the event of a conflict with China, but the government should expand the scope of the program to include members of the public.

Taiwan’s national identity problem

Simon H. Tang

Regarding the rise of doubts in Taiwan about US military aid if China invades, I have the following response. The doubts are reasonable, assuming that a Chinese takeover is not an existential threat to Taiwanese.

It is not, though, a response I would expect to hear from a Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese or Ukrainian.

Some Taiwanese academics and politicians do not believe a Chinese takeover is a threat to Taiwanese, not because they do not believe a Chinese takeover is a possibility or a probability, but rather because they do not believe, in their hearts, that there really is such a thing as a Taiwanese people.

What The CCP Offers The People Of Taiwan: Decades Of Death

Richard D. Fisher, Jr.

Though it has had 74 years to develop its plans, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has given no real credible explanation of what it will do to Taiwan and its citizens after it invades and conquers the independent and self-actualized island democracy.

Official CCP pronouncements explain little and offer frighting implications.

Historic precedent, however, suggests the possibility of a murderous CCP reign of terror, while terrorizing Taiwan’s new diaspora and forcing Taiwan’s youth into decades of wars for global hegemony.

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