00:00You know that US defense spending is only 3% of GDP, far below the Cold War average of 7.
00:095%.
00:10And that underspending invites costlier trouble, as you said.
00:16If we apply that logic to Taiwan, is Taiwan investing enough in our own defense?
00:25No, I think that Taiwan is not investing in our own defense.
00:28And I think that that's a lament or even a friendly criticism that can be made about others also.
00:38I think the United States is not spending sufficiently in its own defense.
00:42When we are at 3% roughly of GDP today, after a Cold War average of 7.5%, that
00:49's an enormous shortcoming.
00:52But I think President Trump deserves significant credit here for calling for a $1.5 trillion defense budget.
00:59A very significant increase on the roughly $1 trillion current level in the US.
01:05And we should be seeing that from our most important allies and partners around the world.
01:09That's true in Europe, it's true in Asia, in Japan, and it's enormously true here.
01:16And so I think that the importance of Taiwan finding a way to pass through its legislature these proper larger
01:25defense budget increases.
01:26Where the top line is larger, the spending is on important asymmetric capabilities including drones.
01:32It is enormously important.I think Taiwan's own defense and to the shared interest that Taiwan and the United
01:39States have.
01:40The ability of Taiwan to work with the United States on asymmetric capabilities that are really most appropriate to
01:49the defense of Taiwan from the PLA.
01:51The ability to do co-production in drones and in other critical systems.
01:58This is enormously important, these activities, in addition to questions of the baseline.
02:05And so I think that the political trouble here, the desire, at least within parts of the KMT,
02:15not to fund these investments,
02:20is disappointing and worse than disappointing, I think it's provocative.
02:24It invites Beijing to see weakness here.
02:27In democracies, we set our policies through the democratic process.
02:32So at the level of principle, it can be of course perfectly appropriate to say that the democratic process needs
02:43to run its course
02:44and decide where to spend money.
02:48But there's a wiser way to decide and there's a riskier way, a more dangerous way.
02:55And so I think in Taiwan's system and in the US system, given the very significant threats that come
03:04from Beijing,
03:05we would be better off, each of us and together, by spending more and spending better.
03:12But President Trump, in the official discussions with Xi Jinping, gave nothing away with respect to Taiwan policy.
03:21And, you know, there were some fears before the summit that President Trump could be convinced by Xi Jinping to
03:36change US declaratory policy,
03:41change the rhetoric and state that the United States opposes Taiwan independence.
03:47There was a concern that President Trump would promise Xi Jinping to stop arms sales.
04:00There were a series of concerns like that.
04:05And it appears that in the discussions in Beijing, President Trump did none of those things.
04:13MH.
04:13And it appears that if the day of the country was taken away, there were a few more people who
04:17have come from China in Beijing,
04:17and they appeared in the Arctic as well.
04:17And they discovered that in Beijing, that was an extraordinary while the country was in the migration of India in
04:17Wuhan.
04:17And they were from India in the state that the country would be able to change their knowledge to Japan.
留言