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Taiwan’s defence expo returns after 4-year hiatus, with US firms attending for the 1st time

Taipei had requested special defence funding from 2022 to 2026 to improve its combat capability in the air and at sea. In that special budget, NT$16.9 billion (US$548 million) was earmarked for the Hsiung Sheng programme.

Taiwan has structured its military strategy around asymmetric warfare, which can allow the weaker side in a war to fight and win against a more capable enemy, which in Taiwan’s case is the PLA.

Taiwan’s 2023 national defence report said military retaliation was one of the ways to weaken an enemy’s offence and frustrate an attack on the island. It said missiles such as the Hsiung Sheng were the “main weapons” for retaliatory combat.

Taiwan’s military must objectively assess PLA then ‘strengthen ourselves’

The Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan. In 1949, it prevailed over the ruling nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party in the Chinese civil war and founded the People’s Republic of China. The KMT then fled to Taiwan.

The KMT ruled Taiwan until democratic reforms in the 1990s brought peaceful transitions of power between political parties, including the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party.