Taiwan recently announced plans to build a new 500-ton stealth corvette in response to China’s ongoing naval buildup. In an email interview, Richard A. Bitzinger, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, discussed Taiwan’s domestic arms industry. WPR: What is the current state of the Taiwanese arms industry, and what is prompting its growth? Richard A. Bitzinger: The growing military threat from China, together with the refusal of most countries — except the United States — to sell arms to Taiwan, are the primary rationales for maintaining an indigenous arms […]