Bipartisan US lawmakers have once again criticized and expressed disappointment that Taiwan’s efforts to enhance its self-defense capabilities are being hindered.
US senators Jim Risch and Jeanne Shaheen, chairman and ranking member of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations respectively, released a joint statement yesterday saying they were “deeply disappointed” that the NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.46 billion) special defense budget for this year to 2033 proposed by President William Lai (賴清德) remains stalled in the legislature.
“We urge Taiwan’s political parties to work in good faith across party lines to fully fund Taiwan’s self-defense,” the senators said.
Photo: Reuters
They called on Taiwan’s parties to put aside their differences and work together, and urged political leaders to focus on securing vital military reforms, rather than seeking photo opportunities with the Chinese Communist Party.
Citing China’s brazen military exercises simulating a blockade of Taiwan in December last year, the senators said the drills serve as a reminder of Beijing’s intentions toward Taiwan, and its threats to a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
The special defense funding is critical for military reforms and improvements to whole-of-society resilience, for Taiwan’s security, and its partnership with the US, they added.
The Legislative Yuan has repeatedly blocked a review of the Cabinet’s special defense budget since Lai announced it in November last year, with the opposition — the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) — demanding that Lai first brief lawmakers and take questions on the proposal — a request the president has rejected.
Backed by the KMT, the TPP proposed its own version of a national defense special act on Friday last week, which caps arms spending at NT$400 billion through to 2033, and requires that funding be allotted on a yearly basis.
Responding to the US senators’ statement, the KMT yesterday said it supports a reasonable defense budget and called on the American Institute in Taiwan to accurately convey its position to the US Congress, which it alleged was being misled by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.
Taiwan’s budget system differs from that of the US, the KMT said, adding that the legislature last year approved more than NT$600 billion in defense spending, and that this year’s budget would remain at the same level, unaffected by the passage of this year’s general budget.
Opposition parties are withholding the review of the total budget for this fiscal year, because the DPP refuses to allocate NT$30 billion to raise the salaries of soldiers, the bill for which has already passed a third reading in the Legislative Yuan, it said.
When the DPP government includes the increased military salary in its budget, the opposition would immediately review and approve the defense budget, the KMT said, adding that the “treatment of soldiers should also be an important part of the defense budget.”
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