China's military buildup worries Taiwan

China has continued to grow its military strength with part of that development concerning military units with a focus on Taiwan, according to a defense review released by Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Monday.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has continued to upgrade arms for troops stationed with Nanjing and Guangzhou military units, which have the potential to threaten Taiwan, a MND-released Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) said. The report said this situation, which has emerged despite improving cross-strait ties, poses a major threat to Taiwan.

For the past few years, the PLA has been conducting military exercises which focus on the scenario of taking an island should possible military conflict occur, the QDR also said.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government continued to call on the United States to stop selling weapons to Taiwan in the hope of increasing the military gap between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, it said.

The above evidence all shows that Beijing's growing military strength continues to target and threaten Taiwan, the QDR said.

This is the second version of the QDR released by the MND. Defense Minister Kao Hua-chu was scheduled to report to the legislatures' Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today.

On March 16, 2009, Taiwan issued its first QDR to the legislature for review as a result of an amendment to the National Defense Act. Regulation requires that the QDR be sent to the Legislative Yuan for review every four years.-Asia News Network (March 13, 2013)