Taiwan is reportedly pouring billions into its naval fleet with seven new submarines to provide defense against a potential attack from the Chinese Community Party's People's Liberation Army.
Taiwan's Indigenous Defense Submarine Program will get $8.88 billion in the new budget allocation approved by the Cabinet to be presented to legislators this week, the South China Morning Post reported Saturday.
"The government is committed to maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, continually enhancing national defense capabilities, and implementing policies such as indigenous vessel and aircraft production to build a resilient Taiwan and safeguard national sovereignty," Taiwanese Cabinet spokesman Chen Shih-kai told the SCMP.
Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te is determined to defend Taiwan's sovereignty despite the ongoing One China policy.
The budget plan has been deemed "irresponsible" by analysts because the submarine prototypes have not yet completed sea trials.
"This move is not only hasty and irresponsible but also astonishing, as the average cost of NT$40 billion per submarine is much higher than the building cost of the prototype, which greatly deviates from global shipbuilding norms," former Taiwanese defense ministry press secretary Lu De-yun told SCMP.
"This urgency inevitably raises suspicions — what unspoken reasons could there be for such a rush?"
Lu De-yun is concerned about the lack of readiness, too.
"The prototype hasn't even undergone sea trials yet, so how can such a massive budget for the subsequent construction of seven submarines be approved so hastily?" he told SCMP. "This isn't a case of 'drawing the target after shooting the arrow'; it's more like shooting the arrow without even drawing a target.
"These tests will inevitably uncover several flaws that need to be modified, and after making those changes, further testing will be required.
"This cycle of testing and modification means that the unified system configuration for the seven follow-up submarines, as well as the exact budget required, won't be determined until at least mid-next year."
The panning of the aggressive move for untested subs was echoed by the Association of Strategic Foresight's Chieh Chung.
"Preparation for the budget should be made step by step, and it is inappropriate to allocate a large, long-term budget for the mass production of submarines when sea trials have not yet begun and production configuration is still undetermined," Chung told SCMP.
"This would result in significant inaccuracies in the budget."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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