Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central Standing Committee on Wednesday passed the party’s new platform draft, which readopted former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) old platform of “no unification, no independence and no use of force” (不統、不獨、不武).

KMT chairman-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who is to be sworn in on Aug. 20, stressed that the party would never change its name and added that it will adhere to the “1992 consensus” and to “one China, with each side having its own interpretation of what China means,” while continuing to oppose Taiwanese independence.

A defense white paper released by the Japanese government on Thursday said that the increasing capabilities of the Chinese missile forces, navy and air force create “problems for Taiwan’s weapons modernization.” The paper clearly takes the position that Taiwan must be ready for an inevitable military conflict with China. It appears to urge Taipei to increase military spending, saying that the nation’s defense budget has not increased in nearly two decades, while China’s “public” defense budget last year was 15 times that of Taiwan’s.