Ching Fu Case: Defense Industry Autonomy Drowns Upon Touching Water?

  Ching Fu Case: Defense Industry Autonomy Drowns Upon Touching Water?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

November 1, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

Ching Fu Shipbuilding ignited a financial crisis; how the minesweeping case, valued at NT$35 billion, is going to proceed has become a problem for the Ministry of Defense.

In fact, even in countries with mature arms industries, such as the United States, there are still frequently cases of failures in weapons research and development, squandering public funds, and even dragging the manufacturers to bankruptcy. Our country hopes to industrialize defense needs; it is even more impossible to shoulder the "tuition." Nevertheless, atmospherics of the political establishment and the media do not permit any mistakes. Once a problem emerges, it will be demonized, not allowing any opportunities to learn lessons from failures, even becoming the target of mutual attacks and pursuit to kill between the ruling and opposition camps. As a result, it is inevitable that the military will become more and more timid; cadres are afraid to make mistakes, so much so that they resort to inaction, leading to no actions of accumulation in the learning curve, and resulting in the decline in experience and capability. However, in the realistic situation, a country cannot fail to initiate military investment; the result of the lack of ad hoc talents is to create more and more scandals or suckers. 

Developing the defense industry is a consensus of both Blue and Green; now we have just begun to move into the deep waters zone, and right there stumbled into the minesweeper case. The authorities should regard the Ching Fu case as the best lesson, using this opportunity to perfect the system, preventing beforehand possible problems, confronting the reality in the face of untoward incidents, avoiding wantonly struggling upon touching water, leading to drowning, nor suffering from the syndrome of once bitten, twice shy. This is precisely the responsible performance of the powers that be, and is also the necessary prerequisite for the development of the defense industry.

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