Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-07
By: CNA

A US defense official attending a US-Taiwan defense conference in Virginia encouraged American companies on Monday to transfer technology to Taiwan so that it can assemble its own weapons, according to a participant at the conference.

Abraham Denmark, US deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, was cited as having made the appeal during a speech at the three-day US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference 2015, which opened Sunday in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The participant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Denmark opened his speech by stressing the United States’ security commitments to Taiwan but that US promises alone were not enough to guarantee Taiwan’s security, and he suggested that Taiwan needed to bear its own share of responsibility.

Denmark advised Taiwan to pay more attention to defense matters, saying that Taiwan’s military spending should be sufficient to support military operations and training, according to the participant.

Denmark also encouraged American arms companies to transfer their technologies to Taiwan so that Taiwan can build its own weapons, arguing that much of the large and expensive military equipment produced by these companies was no longer meeting Taiwan’s needs, the participant said.     [FULL  STORY]