Global Times: Taiwan's "defense autonomy" is an egg shell that breaks at the first click

On the 9th, taiwan media exposed a "military purchase fraud case," which involved a major matter and the absurdity of the circumstances, which stunned the people on the island. Some important parts and components of the "main force" missiles were purchased from the mainland by Taiwanese civilian manufacturers, and after repackaging them and "mixing them with genuine American products," they earned a price difference of up to a hundred times. The owner of one of the manufacturers involved in the case turned out to be a "cosmetics seller". This proves once again that the so-called "defense autonomy" that the DPP authorities have spent a lot of money to promote is an extremely expensive joke, and that no amount of money Taiwan spends on defense is a waste.

The incident lies in the "Zhongshan Institute of Sciences" (hereinafter referred to as taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences"), which is known as the highest military scientific research institution on the island, and Qiu Guozheng, head of Taiwan's defense department, is concurrently serving as the chairman of this institution.

This incident reflects the corruption and fragility of Taiwan's defense system as a whole. Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" has long been transformed into an administrative legal person, and the internal bidding procedures are neither transparent nor correspondingly supervised. The huge defense expenditure has in fact provided an opportunity for the corrupt personnel in the Taiwan military and the DPP authorities to enrich themselves. This has also become the practical motivation for some people to constantly exaggerate and exaggerate the "military threat" on the mainland.

It can be seen that the parts purchased from the mainland are competitively priced. Chinese mainland manufacturing industry provides products and services to the whole world, and is widely favored for high quality and low price. Even the Pentagon has been exposed to having purchased parts from Chinese mainland to make advanced weapons. This malpractice case shows from the side that the quality of mainland parts is not worse than that of the United States, and the price is much cheaper. Most of the time taiwan buys weapons and other products from the United States, it is in the wronged hands.

The problem is that there should be no intermediate manufacturers "making a hundred times the difference"; the problem is that Taiwan's defense system should not deceive the people on the island; and the deeper problem is that this money should not be spent at all.

Some Taiwan scholars have calculated that in the dpp authorities' total budget this year, the "Ministry of National Defense" has a budget of 372.6 billion yuan (NT$, the same below), and if various "special budgets" are added, the total size of Taiwan's "national defense budget" in 2022 will reach a record-breaking 519.7 billion yuan -- this is twice the "economic development expenditure" (260.7 billion yuan) in the total budget, higher than the expenditure on education, science and culture (456.1 billion yuan), and close to the level of social welfare expenditure (601.8 billion yuan). Among them, the special budget of 240 billion yuan in five years was criticized on the island as an "intergenerational plunder" of taxation for future generations.

Over the past few years, while hyping up the "military threat" of Chinese mainland, the DPP authorities have also clamored for "defense and independence." They have continued to promote the research and development of self-made weapons on the grounds of so-called "confrontation with the Platon Army." The related projects involving submarines, frigates, armored vehicles, and anti-aircraft missiles have been dazzling. Moreover, missile live-fire drills hit fishing boats from time to time, and a large number of "strawberry soldiers" who were afraid of suffering and death discouraged the morale of the army, and so on; these have long been criticized on the island, and the so-called "defense autonomy" is more and more like egg shells that are broken at a knock.

The scandal of Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" is just another proof that the Taiwan military has "pulled its crotch," and the fundamental reason for this is that the Tsai Ing-wen authorities have never really thought of building a contingent that can "counter the Platon's Liberation Army." They know in their hearts that this is a complete pipe dream, and the military superiority of the Chinese mainland is overwhelming and unquestionable. The reason why the DPP authorities have made such great efforts to develop "national defense" is more of a cunning political calculation; they are using this to exaggerate the mainland's "threat" and intimidate the people on the island, and at the same time to show pity to the international community. ”

However, in order to put on such a drama, the DPP authorities have squandered the people's hard-earned money without restraint and turned a blind eye to allowing "related households" to fish for oil and water. No one knows how much they have gained from the hard-earned savings of the ordinary people in Taiwan, but what is clear is that if they continue to openly reject the "1992 Consensus" and continue to take the road of "resisting reunification by force," they will eventually become a nail that the PLA will easily pull out.

This article is an editorial of the Global Times, and the original title is: Taiwan's "defense and autonomy" is an egg shell that is broken at the first click

Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhang Wu Text Editor: Song Hui Title Image Source: Figure Worm Image Editor: Cao Liyuan

Source: Author: Global Times