Source: Voice of the Straits
Huang Shuguang is about to resign again! For the people on the island, this is not big news, because as early as the 2024 election period, it was rumored that Huang Shuguang, who is also a member of the "advisory committee" of Taiwan's intelligence unit and the convener of the "self-built submarine" project, had verbally asked Tsai Ing-wen to resign. Compared to the last false shot, this time it seems to be "playing for real".
On 16 April, his sister, Huang Shanshan, a representative of the People's Party, gave an explanation. She said that this is a personal work choice, and Huang Shuguang has also reached a certain age, which is everyone's career plan. Huang Shanshan provided two pieces of information, one is to confirm that Huang Shuguang really resigned this time, and the other is to attribute the reason to job choice and age, which seems to be a natural practice and does not need much interpretation.
On the 17th, Huang Shuguang issued a statement in the evening, saying that the reason for his resignation was "physical and mental exhaustion, and he has nothing to do with others, let alone any political factors." At the same time, he claimed that he had "endured false accusations and serious slander", and that he believed that "these political calculations have had a far-reaching impact on the social atmosphere" and that "he made a formal complaint to set the record straight".
Huang Shuguang's so-called statement that it has nothing to do with other people and political factors has the flavor of three hundred taels of silver here. The person he sued was Wu Zijia, a senior media person in Taiwan who continued to criticize him as a "corruption criminal".
Is Wu Zijia afraid? Not only was he not afraid, but he was even very excited. Because the "defendant" Wu Zijia was originally the "plaintiff". As early as November last year, he went to the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office to denounce Huang Shuguang, Liu Siwei, Guo Xi and others on suspicion of embezzlement and treason against Taiwan. But it has been five months now, and Taiwan's prosecutors have not responded for a long time.
Huang Shuguang
Now Huang Shuguang took the initiative to match the line, which was called a "good opportunity" by Wu Zijia. He said that he had agreed with his lawyer and asked the judge to send the entire tape to the investigation bureau for examination. He bitterly criticized Huang Shanshan for holding a press conference and saying that "the Huang family is innocent" and "opening his eyes and telling nonsense".
The tape was converted into a transcript of nearly 70,000 words, and the content was a conversation with a submarine manufacturer, involving a number of "gossip" about Taiwan's defense department and weapons system secrets, as well as what kind of official Huang Shuguang would become in the future.
How the lawsuit between Huang and Wu ended is a difficult question to judge. Although Wu Zijia has the recording evidence in his hand, it is difficult to say whether the prosecution will accept it; although Huang Shuguang's "former boss" Tsai Ing-wen is about to step down, the "new boss" is still the Democratic Progressive Party.
However, the incomprehensible plot is also appearing here. It stands to reason that Huang Shuguang is a key figure in Taiwan's "self-built submarine" case, and the DPP authorities have spent nearly 40 billion yuan (New Taiwan dollars, the same below) to build a "Haikun" with great effort, and Huang should have doubled his reward for his "outstanding meritorious service." This was the main reason why the outside world initially speculated that he would be in charge of Taiwan's defense department.
Especially Lai Qingde also threatened not long ago that the remaining 7 submarines will be built at one time, no matter what Huang Shuguang says, he should continue to shine, why is there only a lonely and controversial back left now?
From left: Tsai Ing-wen, Gu Lixiong, Lai Qingde, Guan Biling
What is the love-hate entanglement between Huang and Lai, the outside world cannot gain insight into it, but judging from the results of the two parting ways, either Huang doesn't like Lai, or Lai doesn't like Huang, of course, there is another possibility, that is, the two don't like each other.
Another thing to add here is that regarding the construction plan of the follow-up 7 submarines, the media has recently exposed a budget with a total price of 280 billion, and the average cost of each submarine is about 40 billion. This "price list" made Taiwan's public opinion instantly fry.
You must know that the final cost of the first submarine "Haikun" is about 31.2 billion yuan. This is already a "sky-high price" that is much higher than the cost of a Japanese submarine with more advanced performance. Originally, it was estimated that the cost of follow-up mass production was expected to drop to about 24 billion, but I did not expect that the submarines built later would be nearly 10 billion higher than the first one.
Huang Yangming, a veteran media personality in Taiwan, observed that in the past, if the media scribbled up, Taiwan's defense department would severely refute it, but this time the reaction was unusually "gentle" and only said that "the data does not seem to be like this, and we seem to be still compiling it." This proves that the media's revelations are not groundless. In addition, Huang Shuguang chose to leave at this time, which makes people even more suspicious, these hundreds of billions of things must be greasy, and I don't know how deep the water is.
Lu Lishi, former captain of the Taiwan Navy, said that this incident is "normal" because "the front line is tight, and the rear is tight," and this will always be the case. He also pointed out that in addition to the high cost of building submarines, Taiwan's self-built submarines are also very backward in technology. The "Sea Kun" claims to be 10 years ahead of the current boats, and even so, it has only reached the level of the 90s of the last century, and has not yet entered the 21st century.
Taiwan media picture
It is expensive, but it only costs more money; the technology is backward, but it can still be used; and some other military experts are extremely worried about the planning and quality of Taiwan's submarine construction. The supply chain of parts and equipment involved in the construction of submarines is very long, and the technology is relatively complex, and Huang Shuguang has not yet reached the level of launching operations by collecting spare parts from all over the world.
In other words, there is a big question mark over whether the first submarine blown up by the DPP can be used, so why is it so impatient to plan to build the other seven submarines at once? The budget may be allocated at one time, but how can the relevant accessories, weapon systems, and skilled workers be all together at one time?
Even if all the problems in the early stage are successfully solved, if there are loopholes in the design after the construction is completed, it is equivalent to copying the same mistake seven times, and it may cost a lot of money to fix the vulnerabilities. The Taiwan military's already stretched budget, manpower, and resources will continue to be depleted in this project, which has an uncertain future.
The so-called "wrong policy is more terrible than corruption" is a phrase that is most appropriate to describe Lai Qingde and Huang Shuguang. No matter how greedy Huang Shuguang is, it will not exceed 40 billion yuan, and there is still a limit to the losses caused by it; and under Lai Ching-te's order, Taiwan's navy and the entire defense system will face a tremendous impact, and the budget loss of hundreds of billions of yuan will be a calculable part, and the huge social cost paid for strategic mistakes will be an astronomical amount that cannot be quantified. [Source/Voice of the Strait WeChat text/Dali]