Sat, Dec 17, 2005 page3

• KMT legislator backs US on larger defense budget

  `REASONABLE SPENDING' Legislator Hsieh Wen-cheng said his party was not opposed to buying more weapons, just to the idea of using a special budget to pay for them

  • By Jimmy Chuang / STAFF REPORTER
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  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers, who have blocked the special arms procurement bill because they object to the government using a special budget to pay for the weapon systems, may be moving to support a US suggestion that Taiwan increase its annual defense spending from 2.4 percent of GDP to 3 percent.

  Reporting to the legislature's Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Taiwan's representative to the US David Lee (李大維) confirmed that Washington has suggested that the government increase its annual defense spending to 3 percent of GDP in order to accommodate the latest arms procurement package from the US in its regular annual budget.

  "I absolutely agree with this new idea," KMT Legislator Hsieh Wen-cheng (謝文政) said yesterday on the legislative floor.

  "As a matter of fact, the KMT has never boycotted the [special arms budget] proposal. But we insist that the money be spent reasonably," he said.

  Hsieh said the KMT is against the idea of using an individual budget to purchase military weapons because it is very easy to create more financial problems for the government. The KMT has also always complained about the high price of the weapons purchased from the US, he said.

  "We believe that this is definitely negotiable," Hsieh said. "We just need more work on it. That is all."

  Hsieh's support for the suggestion was not welcomed wholeheartedly by the pan-green camp.

  DPP Legislator Wang To-far (王塗發) said Hsieh's attitude was not sincere.

  "[The pan-blue camp] has boycotted the arms procurement bill 41 times. Is that what he claimed -- that `the KMT never boycotted the proposal?'" Wang said.

  Wang said that the pan-blue camp's boycott had also hampered the work of other lawmakers.

  "If it is a necessary proposal, we shall authorize it as soon as possible. Constant boycotting like this will only slow down our work and is very annoying," he said.

  Wang said Taiwan's defense spending as a percentage of its GDP is low compared to China's 4.3 percent, Singapore's 4.9 percent, the US' 3.3 percent and Israel's 8.7 percent.

  Two civic organizations opposed to the special arms budget voiced their objections yesterday to increasing the defense budget, saying a hike in defense spending would encourage an endless arms race across the Taiwan Strait, which "Taiwan would definitely lose."

  Huang Kuang-kuo (黃光國), convener of the Democratic Action Alliance, said he is disappointed that the KMT is ready to "yield to US pressure."

  Huang said Taiwan's annual defense spending -- as a ratio of GDP -- is already higher than South Korea's 2.1 percent and Japan's 2.01 percent.

  Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), convener of the Anti-Arms Procurement Alliance, accused the US of asking Taiwan to buy the P-3C marine-patrol aircraft, Patriot PAC-III anti-missile systems and diesel-electric submarines just to facilitate its own strategic planning in the Asia-Pacific region.
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