Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ministry mum on large-scale weapons purchase

Taipei Times

The Ministry of National Defense yesterday declined to say whether Taiwan is pursuing a multibillion-dollar weapons purchase from the US, after sources briefed on the matter said that officials are in talks with Washington to procure at least US$7 billion of arms.

Three sources familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation, told Reuters that Taiwan is in talks with Washington.

The package is meant to demonstrate to the US that Taiwan is committed to its defense, one of the sources said.

Lai vows to lift defense spending to 3%

Taipei Times

The government aims to increase defense spending to at least 3 percent of GDP this year, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, hours after US President Donald Trump again threatened tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors.

At a news conference in Taipei following his first high-level national security meeting this year, Lai said the government would propose a special budget this year to increase the nation’s defense spending to more than 3 percent of GDP.

“Taiwan must firmly safeguard its national sovereignty, strengthen its resolve for self-defense and bolster its defense capabilities,” he said.

Political diversity key to normalcy

Lee Min-yung 李敏勇

Imperial monarchies can transform into constitutional monarchies through democratization, with the progressive, or left, and conservative, or right, camps ruling by choice. Some imperial monarchies directly turn into “people’s democratic dictatorships” through communist revolutions, which are just communist dictatorships in practice. Based on leftist ideology, these so-called “people’s democracies” become communist autocratic regimes. Both left-wing and right-wing political parties have the potential to become authoritarian and totalitarian.

The right-wing regime of Adolf Hitler was a historical catastrophe, but was the left-wing regime of Joseph Stalin not also a historical catastrophe? And what about communist China under Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) rule? Whether right or left, only in a true democratic system can the meaning and value of progressivism and conservatism be realized.

Philippines and New Zealand in talks for defense pact

Taipei Times

The Philippines and New Zealand have begun negotiating an agreement that would allow them to deploy troops on each other’s soil, the two countries said yesterday, as concerns over maritime tensions with China grow.

Manila has been seeking to boost defense ties in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond in the face of China’s growing confidence in asserting its claims over the hot spot South China Sea.

A first round of talks was held in Manila on Thursday last week between the Philippines and New Zealand’s defense departments, they said in a joint statement.

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