Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chung-mo (
"He [Paal] is a vicious dog dispatched by the US government to collect protection fees from us. If he's not called back to his own country, we will refuse to buy any military weapons from the US," he said.
PHOTO: CNA
"He should have exercised more prudence in his words and deeds and given us more respect if he wants us to spend a fortune on buying military weapons from the US government," he said.
If Paal refuses to leave, Lin said that he was capable of launching a campaign to boycott the budget plan earmarked for arms procurement from the US.
Lin made the remarks yesterday morning during a legislative committee meeting.
The Cabinet has approved a special bill and budget of NT$614.1 billion (US$18.4 billion) for buying weapons from the US. The bill and budget are awaiting approval by the legislature.
The money is to be spent over the next 15 years. NT$412 billion is earmarked for eight diesel-electric submarines, NT$145 billion for six Patriot anti-missile systems and NT$53 billion for 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft.
The Cabinet plans to issue bonds to raise NT$420 billion of the money, with another NT$100 billion coming from selling land owned by the Ministry of Defense. The remaining NT$94 billion will come from selling shares in state-owned enterprises.
Lin cited three recent examples to illustrate what he said was Paal's impudence. One was Paal's meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
"This reckless move gave the pan-blue alliance the impression that the US government didn't recognize the legitimacy of the Chen Shui-bian (
"As we were relying on the reaction of the US to the presidential election, he should've known better what the possible consequences were," he said.
Another example Lin gave was that the US government's congratulation note did not come from US President George W. Bush, which he said again led the pan-blue alliance to think that the Bush administration did not recognize the legitimacy of the Chen administration.
Finally, Lin criticized Paal's recent comments on cross-strait tension after the election, in which Paal said that Taiwan should address China's growing military threat as a national priority for the country's own security and for the maintenance of stability in the region.
As a top diplomat representing the US government, Lin said that Paal should have known that his comments on cross-strait issues would be exaggerated and sometimes twisted by pro-China media.
Moving to defend Paal, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (
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