The top US envoy to Taiwan yesterday said that President William Lai’s (賴清德) proposed US$40 billion special defense budget marks “a major step toward maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait by strengthening deterrence.”
Lai first outlined the budget proposal in the Washington Post, hours before reiterating the plan at a news conference in Taipei.
American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene on social media said that Taiwan is joining “partners from across Europe to Japan and [South] Korea that are making critical defense investments necessary to deter unprecedented challenges to global peace and prosperity.”
Photo grab from AIT FB
He reiterated Washington’s stance in supporting Taiwan’s “rapid acquisition of critical asymmetric capabilities needed to strengthen deterrence” under the Taiwan Relations Act and “decades of commitment across multiple US administrations.”
Addressing the opposition parties, Greene said: “Just as support for Taiwan is a longstanding US bipartisan priority, I expect Taiwan’s political parties will find similar common ground.”
“Whether your priority is preserving Taiwan’s democracy and market economy, fostering conditions for cross-strait dialogue or maintaining support from the international community, increasing Taiwan’s defense capabilities is a necessary precondition,” he said. “The entire world has a stake in ensuring that differences across the Taiwan Strait are resolved peacefully and free from coercion.”
Photo: Wang Yi-song, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief executive Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said that Lai’s commitment to increasing defense spending is consistent with the policies of other democracies.
Nations that experience increasing economic and social prosperity necessarily invest in bolstering their defense and national security, he said.
DPP Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) said that Lai’s editorial was an important signal to Washington, which has been vocal in demanding Taiwan show its resolve to defend itself by increasing military and civil defense spending.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) told a news conference that Lai was “playing with fire” by pledging to increase Taiwan’s defense budget, echoing a phrase Beijing frequently uses to criticize foreign policies it deems to be provocative to China.
Lai’s comments are “an investment in war” that would transform the Taiwan Strait into a powder keg and Taiwan into an arms factory, Cheng said after urging the president to refrain from becoming a “troublemaker.”
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), currently visiting Japan, said in a video message that the TPP supports a “reasonable” increase in defense spending, but would conduct a “practical and rational” review to ensure taxpayers’ money is well spent.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
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