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KMT lawmakers back a strong national defense

Taiwan must maintain proper defense capabilities to ensure its security until the termination of cross-strait military confrontation, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers said yesterday.

According to KMT caucus whip Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源), the establishment of a cross-strait military confidence-building mechanism as proposed by KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) during talks on Friday with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in Beijing is a goal that the KMT hopes will reduce cross-strait hostility and halt the arms race.

However, this did not mean that Taiwan should halt all of its arms procurement plans, he said.

Trim the package

Cho said the KMT would consult with other parties to trim the NT$480 billion (US$15.19 billion) arms-procurement package proposed by the Ministry of National Defense so that the needs of the nation are met.

The package includes a squadron of 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft, six Patriot PAC-III anti-missile batteries and eight diesel-electric submarines from the US.

KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-min (帥化民), the former head of the National Defense Management College, said that while pursuing cross-strait peace, Taiwan needed to maintain sufficient defense capabilities to preserve its leverage for negotiating with China.

`Necessary investment'

Shuai said it was necessary to invest in arms procurement but to avoid any wasteful procurement items.

According to Shuai, Taiwan and China will have to exchange dialogue on military issues sooner or later, depending on the political atmosphere in the Taiwan Strait.

He said that Taiwan's military deployments should be guided by the concept of "survival is victory," and that the governments on both sides of the Strait should avoid political manipulation in order to prevent military conflict.
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