Lawmakers Alarmed by Chinese Parts Found in Taiwan Military Drones

The discovery of Chinese parts in Taiwan-made military drones has lawmakers alarmed.

Transcript

00:00The Albatross 2 drone is supposed to be a work of domestic Taiwanese engineering, but

00:05ahead of its mass production, there's a snag.

00:08It turns out some of its parts are made in China.

00:11China claims Taiwan, and it's Chinese forces these drones are built to repel.

00:15Yet inspectors only caught the Chinese parts at the last minute, when the military took

00:19delivery of early units.

00:21Now concerned lawmakers are pressing the drone's maker over the potential security risks.

00:26The defense minister too faced questions.

00:52When he pledged tighter controls, once the drones go into mass production, lawmaker

00:56press for specifics.

00:57The officers are not going to be burned.

00:58Which ones should be burned?

01:00The standard, is it the standard?

01:03We are divided into five types.

01:04For example, we can put a table on.

01:06We don't need to be burned into account.

01:11Some of the things that have proven use of the workflow.

01:17We must be sure we can't use it.

01:20How reassured lawmakers may be is hard to gauge.

01:23But the issue of Chinese-made equipment in sensitive places is not a new one for Taiwan.

01:28Last year, Taiwan People's Party lawmaker Huang Guochang broke the news that army bases

01:32were using Chinese devices.

01:34An audit found Chinese-made network routers, data readers, and power inverters.

01:39Rocket fuel powder and some electrical components in Taiwan-made missiles have also been traced

01:44to China in the past.

01:45But with China the world's largest exporter, getting the parts Taiwan needs without the

01:50risk Chinese parts could bring won't be easy.

01:53Eason Chen and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.