Ex-diplomat fears over Taiwan security
2013-03-18 15:02
Taipei - The former top American diplomat in Taiwan has
said that the island's declining military budgets have left it vulnerable to
Chinese attack and made it easier for mainland spies to penetrate its armed
forces, remarks that the defence ministry on Monday called "not entirely
objective”.
The comments from William Stanton constituted an
unusually hard-hitting critique of Taiwan's national security posture, and
stood in sharp contrast to repeated assertions of American support for
President Ma Ying-jeou's five-year programme of seeking to lower tensions with
the mainland, from which Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949.
A career diplomat, Stanton served as the head of the de
facto US embassy in Taiwan from August 2009 to August 2012.
His remarks came in a speech before a pro-independence
organization in Taipei on Friday.
Responding to Stanton's charges, the defence ministry
acknowledged that between 2003 and 2008 unspecified "political
reasons" led to cuts in the duration of military service, “which impacted
negatively on the quality of military exercises and on force preparedness”.
It did not elaborate.
It also said it regretted that defence spending was
unable to exceed 3% of GDP, but said that despite budgetary difficulties it had
made "appropriate" expenditures on transitioning to an all-volunteer
force and "meeting other major defence needs”.
Since 1994, Taiwan's defence expenditures have steadily
declined.
In 2012, they constituted 2.2% of GDP, far below the 3%
target Ma fixed when he came into office in 2008.
One of Stanton's sharpest criticisms was reserved for a
possible link between declining Taiwanese military morale and the upsurge in
Chinese espionage penetrations of the Taiwanese armed forces. Citing press
sources, Stanton said there had been at least nine of these penetrations
between 2004 and 2011, and that many had targeted "Taiwan's command and
control and communication systems and US weapons systems sold to Taiwan”.
"These cases have been harmful not only because of
the potential loss of unknown quantities of classified information, but also
because their success and frequency serves to undermine US confidence in
security co-operation with Taiwan," Stanton said.
His charge constitutes what is believed to be the first
public acknowledgement from a US government official - serving or recently
retired - that Chinese espionage against Taiwanese targets may be impacting
America's willingness to provide security assistance to Taipei.
Pursuing the case
Responding to Stanton's charge, the defence ministry said
it had been zealous in pursuing cases of Chinese espionage against the
Taiwanese military, and that this zealousness proved its
"credibility" in combating the Chinese spying threat.
"We will continue working on measures to safeguard
our security," it said.
Under Ma's leadership, tensions between China and Taiwan
have receded to their lowest levels in more than 60 years, and the possibility
of war between the sides has been significantly reduced.
Stanton acknowledged that in his remarks, but said it was
still vital that Taiwan take its national security needs seriously, not least
because China has never disavowed its threat to use force to bring the island
under its control.
"I firmly believe that sufficient self-defence forms
the foundation from which Taipei can most confidently manage relations with
Beijing," he said.
Sheila Paskman, spokesperson at the de facto US
representative office in Taipei, the American Institute on Taiwan (AIT), said
that Stanton's "views are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of
AIT or the department of state”.
- SAPA
