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.”
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS