A group of military personnel is planning to withdraw from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) because of their anger at the party's continued blocking of arms procurement requests, media reports said yesterday.
A report in the Chinese-language newspaper the Liberty Times, the Taipei Times' sister newspaper, said that an unspecified number of military personnel wrote a joint letter distributed to high-level Ministry of National Defense (MND) officials, complaining that they have been too soft in dealing with the arms bill in the legislature.
The personnel, who did not identify themselves by name, also said in the letter that they are planning to collectively withdraw from the KMT.
"We are disappointed with KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (
In a press statement yesterday, the MND Military Spokesman's Office said it did not approve of the letter, and that the military's stance of remaining neutral and firmly observing the nationalization of the armed forces in accordance with the Constitution will not change.
However, it added that the letter's protest against the continued blocking of the arms bill was in line with mainstream public opinion.
"The Ministry of National Defense respects the opinion and choice of military personnel, but does not support such actions," the press statement said. "The MND pledges loyalty to the nation and maintains neutrality in politics, so any actions involving politics should be avoided."
But the defense ministry also said it will respect any "personal" decisions that military personnel make, and that it will not intervene in matters pertaining to any military servicemember's political affiliations.
They said that since Taiwan's armed forces were nationalized, no political activities have been allowed in the barracks, meaning that the defense ministry has maintained a hands-off attitude toward servicemembers' political stances.
MND officials, however, lamented that lawmakers of the opposition pan-blue camp of the KMT and People First Party, which together hold a slight majority in the Legislative Yuan, have blocked the arms procurement bill from being put on the legislature's agenda 42 times.
Quoting a recent public opinion poll, the officials said that more than half of the public supports the arms procurement bill for the purchase of three PAC-3 anti-missile batteries, eight diesel-powered submarines and 12 P-3C Orion submarine-hunting aircraft from the US, and that more than 70 percent of the respondents think that the Legislative Yuan should debate and pass the bill as soon as possible.
The MND originally designed a NT$480 billion (US$14.5 billion) special budget to buy three weapons systems from the US. But it decided to delay the purchase of Patriot missile batteries until 2007 because pan-blue parties have insisted that the referendum held last March in tandem with the presidential poll was a public "veto" of the purchase. Pan-blue legislators had said according to the Referendum Law (
Last week, the ministry decided to include the 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft in the regular defense budget, which would leave the eight diesel-electric submarines, worth NT$299 billion (US$9 billion) as the only item paid for through the special budget.
Meanwhile, KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma noted, however, that the KMT has no way of contacting them because the letter did not contain any signatures. He added that they are welcomed to come forward and talk with KMT officials about their grievance.
clear stance
Ma, who doubles as the mayor of Taipei, said that the KMT has made its stance on the arms procurement bill very clear, stressing that Taiwan needs to maintain sufficient military strength to defend itself.
Noting that the KMT has never objected to arms procurement, Ma said that the KMT is opposed to "cash-for-friendship" purchase plans or "unreasonable" procurement plans.
"No military members, regardless of their political affiliation, should support an arms procurement bill if it is not drafted based on professional assessments and if it cannot genuinely meet Taiwan's defense needs," Ma said.
Since the KMT encouraged military personnel to join the party when it was in power for more than 50 years, many personnel are KMT members.
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
RESILIENCE: Once the system is operational, there would be no need to worry about the risks posed by disasters or other emergencies on communication systems, an official said Taiwan would have 24-hour access to low Earth orbit satellites by the end of this month through service provided by Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the nation’s effort to enhance signal resilience, a Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) official said yesterday. Earlier this year the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which partnered with Chunghwa Telecom on a two-year project to boost signal resilience throughout the nation, said it reached a milestone when it made contact with OneWeb’s satellites half of the time. It expects to have the capability to maintain constant contact with the satellites and have nationwide coverage by the end
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
RSS