The odds of passing the NT$610.8 billion (US$18 billion) special arms-procurement bill in the legislature before the year-end legislative elections are getting slim, as opposition lawmakers yesterday refused to push it to legislative committees for review.
Cashing in on their legislative majority, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) struck down the bill at the Procedure Committee as they had vowed, prompting the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to walk out of the meeting in protest.
Lawmakers from across the political spectrum on Monday reached a consensus to send the two special draft bills on the arms-procurement project proposed by the Executive Yuan and the PFP to the Procedure Committee to set the agenda for committee review on Friday.
But despite Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng's (
KMT caucus whip Tseng Yuan-chuan (
"Please don't misunderstand. We support the arms-procurement plan," Tseng said. "However, the budget has to be reasonable, practical and transparent."
Calling the KMT's pledge to endorse the bill as a "sugar-coated lie," DPP caucus whip Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) and his colleagues engaged in verbal clashes with opposition lawmakers, and eventually left the room to protest against what he called the opposition parties' "tyranny of the majority."
"We're very disappointed and extremely distraught over the result," Tsai said. "Even though we have shown our utmost sincerity and made several concessions to opposition lawmakers, we get only their boycott in return."
If national security should be jeopardized because the arms-procurement budget fails to pass in the legislature, Huang said that opposition lawmakers should be held responsible.
Because of its minority status, Tsai said that his party can only appeal to the public's sensibilities, and he expects to see the opposition camp come up with more excuses to boycott the bill at the next Procedure Committee meeting.
DPP Legislator Lee Wen-chung (
"As the project was proposed by the KMT administration in 1995, 1997 and 1998, I'm very curious to know why they oppose it now," Lee said. "It would make a lot more sense if China's military threat had diminished since then, but in fact it hasn't."
"I'd like to know whose side they [the pan-blues] are on," Lee said.
Lee said yesterday that he would mobilize 300 people to stage a protest outside of the KMT's headquarters today.
Meanwhile, on the legislative floor, Premier Yu Shyi-kun blamed the KMT for the recent controversy surrounding the nation's financial aid to its diplomatic allies.
Yu said that such projects have to go through standard procedures, but it is beyond the nation's jurisdiction to question how the funds are used by the beneficiary country.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS