Recently passed amendments to a fiscal planning law could reduce the defense budget by 28 percent, undermining the nation’s military readiness and international support for Taiwan, National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday.
Wu, along with Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) and Academia Sinica researcher Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深), were among those who spoke at a meeting of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee about the budget.
If promulgated, amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) would result in a NT$375.3 billion (US$11.49 billion) reduction of the central government’s budget, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said.
Photo: CNA
Other countries in the first island chain have increased their defense spending, such as South Korea, which increased its defense budget by 4.5 percent, while Japan increased its by 16 percent, Wu said.
However, the budget of Taiwan, the nation under the most pressure from China, might be reduced by nearly 30 percent, which would affect military readiness and equipment maintenance, he said.
As other countries evaluate Taiwan’s resolve to defend itself based on the defense budget, cutting it significantly would send the wrong message, suggesting that it has no intention of defending itself, he said.
In that case, no like-minded countries would help Taiwan, he added.
On Dec. 9, foreign media quoted high-level Taiwanese defense officials as saying that China had deployed 90 vessels to the East and South China seas surrounding Taiwan, Wu said.
The reports were confirmed, showing that China had launched large-scale naval training exercises, which demonstrate its ability to mobilize in adverse conditions and simultaneously threaten all nations within the first island chain, meaning that Taiwan must be careful, he said.
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