Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Taiwankengo/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 4.0
TAIWAN’S DOMESTIC SUBMARINE program has again become an object of political contestation between the pan-Green and pan-Blue camps. In particular, this occurred after the indictments of two South Korean engineers on charges related to leaks of South Korean submarine technology.
It is thought that this occurs due to leaks by KMT legislator Ma Wen-chun. Apart from leaking information about Taiwan’s domestic submarine to South Korea, Ma is accused of leaking information about the submarine to China to curry favor. Ma is reported as having traveled to China to meet with Chinese government officials in the past and to have tried to cut the budget for Taiwan’s domestic submarine program numerous times.
In particular, Taiwan has had difficulties obtaining the necessary technology to construct a submarine. As such, Taiwan may have resorted to any means necessary, in the absence of any ability to obtain such technology openly. South Korea, for its part, has not reported any technology transfers of its domestic submarine technology and is investigating the possibility of leaks.
KMT legislator Ma Wen-chun. Photo credit: Ma Wen-chun/Facebook
Retired navy captain Kuo Hsi, who was involved in Taiwan’s domestic submarine program and has been at the center of political contestation with Ma, denied that this was the case. Kuo claims that Taiwan’s domestic submarine does not use the same technology as South Korea, even if he was among those to accuse Ma of leaking secrets.
For her part, Ma has accused the DPP of using Kuo as an attack dog against her. Ma claimed not to have leaked secrets, stating that she would not do so for confidential meetings, even if it is known that Ma refused to sign a confidentiality agreement from attending legislative committee meetings.
Ma has framed the back-and-forth between Taiwan and South Korea as potentially leading to an international incident, suggesting that this is the fault of the Tsai administration.
Interestingly, this has become a refrain of the pan-Blue camp in recent years, when it comes to Taiwan’s arms purchases or attempts to secure military technology from other countries. The specter of the “international” is used to allege that Taiwan’s arms purchases or technology transfers violate international standards.
Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen (right). Photo credit: Tsai Ing-wen/Facebook
One saw this with regard to efforts by KMT legislators to sink purchases of Volcano landmines from the US. The suggestion was that Volcano landmines violated international human rights conventions forbidding anti-personnel landmines. Certainly, the US is one of the few countries in the world to refuse to sign such conventions, but the KMT has alleged the dangers even when the Tsai administration emphasized that it would not be buying anti-personnel landmines but anti-tank landmines that would be visible with the naked eye.
To this extent, the KMT has increasingly leaned into the political narrative that the arms that Taiwan purchases from the US are useless and foisted onto Taiwan only for the sake of America making money. This occurs with weapons systems that Taiwan has invested significant expenditure on, such as the domestic submarine, with Ma and other KMT legislators framing the submarine as a death trap for members of the navy.
This proves an ironic shift, when the KMT has historically framed itself as the party that represents the interests of military veterans in Taiwan. Nevertheless, this has shifted in the past few years, in that the KMT alleges the futility of standing up to China and frames the DPP’s efforts to build up Taiwan’s military for deterrence as endangering Taiwan–even though the KMT makes token gestures at while also hoping for deterrence against China. However, even as DPP presidential administrations have struggled to influence the ROC military, which hopes to retain its autonomy, the KMT may be opening up pathways for the DPP to make inroads with the military if it continues to denigrate the military.
That being said, even as KMT lawmakers such as Ma have been accused of denigrating the military and leaking secrets to China, this has also occurred with members of the military due to their ROC ideology. As such, it is not merely a case of Taiwan not having the necessary technology for some military hardware, but also that Taiwan could potentially leak this to China–furthering Taiwan’s issues with obtaining necessary military technology.