TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has removed over 800 Chinese-made dashcams from military vehicles.
During a Legislative Yuan session on Wednesday (July 10), Kuomingtang (KMT) Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said that many military vehicle dashcams, including those used by high-ranking officers, are made in China, reported UDN.
In response to a request by Hsu to provide a progress report, Lu Chien-chung (盧建中), deputy chief of the General Staff for Communication, Electronics, and Information, said the MND has already identified and removed over 800 dashcams, with the rest still under investigation.
Hsu said the purchase price of dashcams is typically around NT$2,000 (NT$61), but the same Chinese-made dashcams used by the military can be found for as little as NT$310 on Taobao. Hsu added that in 2021, the vendor who won the bid for the Army Logistics Command's dashcam project was blacklisted for public procurement on the same day the military placed an order.
An investigation into the military's use of Chinese-made technology initiated by Taiwan People's Party Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) revealed on July 4 that two Huawei routers and one Advantech Co. data reader made by a Chinese manufacturer were found at the Army's Hongchaolin Camp.
Huang accused the National Defense University of using Chinese industrial computers and routers, covering for the contractors, and deceiving the MND.
Huang said an MND press release claimed the National Defense University did not use Chinese-made equipment, reported Liberty Times. However, Huang said he found documents from the university notifying contractors to remove and dismantle the Chinese-made products and provide a report.
Following the equipment removal, Huang said the university claimed to the MND that it “had not used Chinese-made products.” Huang then asked whether this was an attempt to conceal the truth.
Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥), director of the Armaments Bureau, said that after three confirmations, only the Army's Hongchaolin Camp reported using Chinese routers. Lin said no reports indicated that the National Defense University used Chinese routers.
In response to legislators' questions, Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said current contracts should prohibit Chinese products. He pledged that the MND would continue investigating the matter with the National Defense University.
