Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has temporarily given up on the idea of buying PAC-3 anti-missile batteries and submarines from the US, according to the latest issue of Chinese-language weekly, the Journalist.
In an interview with the magazine, Wang talked about the long-stalled budget for procuring three major weapons systems from the US -- including 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, three PAC-3 Patriot anti-missile batteries and eight diesel-electric submarines.
Wang was quoted as saying that the president has accepted his advice and given up on buying the missiles for three years starting from March 20, 2004, the date of the referendum that was held to decide whether to purchase the PAC-3s.
The referendum failed after less than 50 percent of the electorate voted.
"Whether we buy the PAC-3s is related to the referendum result. I mentioned this to the president and he more or less accepted my suggestion," Wang told the magazine.
The Journalist also reported that Wang has suggested his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will not include the submarines in its version of the weapons bill, which is scheduled to come out near the end of this month.
Wang was quoted as saying that there are three reasons that KMT opposed buying the submarines -- "First, we don't even know the country of their manufacture. Second, we think the price is twice as expensive as the normal going rate for subs. And third, the delivery time is too long, about 15 years."
Wang, however, issued a press release late yesterday denying part of the report, saying that he had never said that the KMT is opposed to buying the submarines.
"I was not saying that we don't want the submarines. Rather, I was saying that for the moment, we have to deal with the P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and PAC-3 Patriot anti-missile batteries," said the statement.
The decision to buy the submarines is still pending as the party is waiting for the US to lower the price and to hear the reaction of other parties to that price, Wang said.
The Presidential Office yesterday neither confirmed nor dismissed Wang's comments.
Director of the Presidential Office's Department of Public Affairs, Chen Wen-tsung (
Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling
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