Interest groups will stage a protest in Taipei tomorrow against a NT$610.8 billion special budget set to be approved by the legislature for arms procurement.
"There are so many other areas that need funding. We are demanding that there be an open debate about the way such a large amount of our country's resources is being used," said Chou Sheng-hsin (周聖心), a lecturer at Yungho Community University and coordinator of the protest.
The special budget of NT$610.8 billion (US$18.25 billion) was approved by the Cabinet earlier this month for the purchase of arms from the US. The bill, due for review in the legislature, says that the money will be spent over 15 years.
A delegation of 14 legislators -- mostly National Defense Committee members -- headed by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Protest literature lists other areas where the NT$610.8 billion could be spent, such as meeting the budget for environmental protection for 60 years or comprehensive medical support of children under the age of three for 200 years.
Protest organizers also voiced concern that the Cabinet was trying to exercise power outside of its mandate.
"Why should a government that will be in power for just four years decide our arms spending for the next 15?" said Wu Tung-jye (吳東傑), secretary-general of the Green Formosa Front.
"A funding decision of this magnitude should be open to public discussion and subject to review via the regular budgetary decision-making process instead of by a couple of men in power," Wu said.
The protest organizers said they wanted a referendum to be called on the spending plan.
"If there is a referendum, the issue will then receive public scrutiny. All Taiwanese should have a say in something on this scale and of such importance. If there was a referendum, there would in the process be a lot of discussion on the budget as well as on options other than arms spending," Chou said.
Tomorrow's protest will begin at the Asiaworld Department Store near the MRT's Taipei Main Station at 10am and will move to the 228 Memorial Museum before ending at noon.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods