According to Lianhe Zaobao, Tsai Ing-wen delivered a speech a few days ago saying that the People's Liberation Army has been conducting military exercises around Taiwan in recent days, and the Taiwan military must strengthen its defense capabilities. Therefore, the Taiwan authorities plan to increase the "defense budget" by 13.9% in 2023 to NT$586.3 billion.
Taiwan authorities claimed that these new budgets will be used to promote the manufacturing capacity of military aircraft and warships on Taiwan, improve the level of improvement of Taiwan's military equipment, supplement ammunition logistics, and develop "asymmetric" combat power for the People's Liberation Army.
As we all know, since Tsai Ing-wen came to power, the DPP authorities have seriously deviated from the "
992 Consensus ", and are moving further and further in the road of "seeking independence", and are constantly provoking the mainland.
As cross-strait relations are deteriorating, the DPP authorities have chosen to continue to increase defense spending, which is undoubtedly a "provocation". It is reported that since 2017, the Taiwan authorities' defense spending has increased for six consecutive years.
Taiwan's "Main Accounting Office" official Zhu Zemin said that in previous years, Taiwan's defense expenditure generally accounted for between 2.0% and 2.1% of its GDP, while Taiwan's overall defense budget accounted for 2.2% of GDP this year, and this proportion will rise to about 2.6% next year.
It is worth mentioning that Taiwanese media have disclosed many times before that the Taiwan military currently has severe shortage of personnel even the "main combat troops". Not only are the soldiers dissatisfied with the organization, but grassroots officers are also very short of grassroots officers. In the absence of troops, the Taiwan authorities' defense spending is still increasing significantly. One of the important reasons is that the Taiwan authorities plan to purchase more military equipment from the United States.
"Defense Department" budget shows that the Taiwan military canceled its plan to purchase 40 "M109A6" self-propelled guns from the United States, and instead used this part of the funds to purchase 18 "M142 Himas" (HIMARS) multi-barrel rocket systems from the United States.
Therefore, the Taiwan military will purchase a total of 29 sets of "Haimas" rocket launcher from the United States, including 864 supporting high-precision missiles.
In addition, Taiwan's "defense department" has also confirmed that it will add new procurement of the US "Javelin" anti-tank missile system.
. Two days ago, news came from the United States that US President Biden is asking Congress to approve arms sales plans to sell about $1.1 billion to Taiwan, including 60 Harpoon anti-ship missiles and about 100 Rattlesnake air-to-air missiles.
In addition, the list of weapons sold by the United States to Taiwan also includes 250 "Stinger" surface-to-air missiles previously purchased by the Taiwan authorities.
From these orders, it is not difficult to find that most of the weapons purchased by the Taiwan authorities from the United States recently are missile and rocket launcher , and these are the key weapons that the Taiwan authorities have been clamoring for the development of "asymmetric" combat effectiveness against the People's Liberation Army.
What you need to know is that the "Sthorn" surface-to-air missile, the "Jaberlin" anti-tank missile, and the "Haimas" rocket launcher are all weapons that show off their skills on the Ukrainian battlefield, which once caused considerable losses to the Russian army.
The power of the "Harpoon" anti-ship missile was seen in the "Harpoon" War in the UK and Afghanistan. The British "Sheffield" destroyer was sunk by the "Harpoon" anti-ship missile of the Afghan army.
However, given that the United States has been delaying the delivery of weapons to Taiwan, it will take several years for the Taiwan military to be able to truly equip these weapons, and it is expected to wait until after 2030.
Of course, if the People's Liberation Army really wants to "recapture Taiwan by force", even if the Taiwan military successfully equips weapons, it will not play much role. There are at least two reasons.
First of all, the mainland is the real expert in missiles and rocket launchers. Our "Guardian-2D" rocket launcher has the advantages of long range, fast response, high accuracy and low cost. Its range is about 400km, which is enough to cover the entire territory of Taiwan. Moreover, the "Defender-2D" rocket launcher has been exported to many countries and has been tested in actual combat.
If the Taiwan Army dares to be enemies with the People's Liberation Army, it will be "scrubbed" by the People's Liberation Army at the beginning. The range of the "Haimas" rocket launcher purchased by the Taiwan Army is far less than that of the People's Liberation Army. At that time, once the Taiwan Army's missile and rocket launcher systems are exposed, they will inevitably be devastated.
What's more, the reason why "Sthorn", "Jaberlin" and " Himas " can show their skills on the Ukrainian battlefield is that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has become a protracted war, and the Ukrainian army has sufficient reaction and deployment time to attack Russian military equipment.
But once the "window of harmony" between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is closed, the People's Liberation Army will definitely act according to the standard of the first battle, and will not leave any time for the Taiwan Army to react.
Moreover, missiles such as "stinger" and "javelin" have created the greatest results in urban street fighting. The Ukrainian army has the courage to fight street fighting, but the Taiwan army may not have it.
Secondly, the Taiwan authorities are well aware of the huge military gap between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Even the Kuomintang has made it clear that Taiwan’s defense budget cannot continue to increase endlessly, and the Taiwan military cannot engage in a military competition with the People’s Liberation Army.
, especially the Taiwan military has always had problems such as insufficient training, low morale, and internal corruption that seriously affect combat effectiveness. It is completely unrealistic for the DPP authorities to rely solely on upgrading weapons and equipment to narrow the gap in military power between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
In fact, everyone knows it. The real purpose of the DPP's crazy purchase of US arms is to appease the people on the island while paying "protection fees" to the United States and show them their so-called tough attitude and strength. However, these scheming are really not enough to see in front of the People's Liberation Army.
