Taiwan's new Defence Minister Chen Chao-min Wednesday said he plans to reduce the number of the island's military personnel from the current 270,000 to 200,000, according to dpa. "The ministry will fully review various branches of the military in line with its streamlining programme," he said in a parliament meeting aired by the cable news channel ETTV. On his first working day after he was sworn in to his post Tuesday, Chen told parliamentarians that the streamlining would include all ranks of military personnel, not just low-ranking soldiers. Chen did not give a timetable for the troop reductions. He said Taiwan would continue with its push to buy F-16 fighters jets from the US and would review its policy to purchase US submarines. President Ma Ying-jeou, who was inaugurated Tuesday, said Taiwan would not get involved in an arms race with rival China though it would continue to buy defensive arms. "We will not engage in an arms race with mainland China because it is not in our interests and we would not be able to afford that," he said during a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949. Beijing, which considers Taiwan a part a China, has said it would attack the island if it declares independence.
