Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) yesterday denied allegations that Beijing asked the party “to increase mutual trust” by boycotting the defense budget bill, saying they were fabricated statements.
Beijing reportedly asked the KMT to “take concrete actions” — such as hindering the passage of the defense budget — to resume the KMT-Chinese Communist Party forum and facilitate a potential meeting between KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The KMT would consider legal actions against such allegations, which is cognitive warfare that aims to depict the party’s efforts to review the defense budget as an attempt to meet with Xi, Hsiao said.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
The defense budgets is NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion), but arms procurement from the US only required US$300 billion, he cited Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) as saying.
The Cabinet last year approved a NT$1.25 trillion defense budget bill with an eight-year span and sent it to the legislature for review. However, opposition lawmakers have been excluding the bill from agendas since Dec. 2 last year, saying the Executive Yuan has not incorporated the increased military and police pay in its general budget draft.
The KMT’s exchanges with China and the potential Cheng-Xi meeting are irrelevant to defense budgets, Hsiao said, adding that associating the budget issue with the party’s visits to China was a malicious attempt to influence this year’s elections.
KMT caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said President William Lai (賴清德) was the one hindering the passage of defense budgets and jeopardizing national security.
He urged Lai to increase the salaries of military personnel and attend a legislative meeting to report on the state of the nation.
Exorbitant defense budgets undermine safety in the Taiwan Strait, Lo said, adding that Chinese warplanes never crossed the Strait’s median line during the KMT’s rule.
Democratic Progressive Party spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) said the KMT is jeopardizing Taiwan’s security by hindering arms procurement and boycotting the security bill in the legislature.
That fact is aligned with media reports, he said, calling on the KMT to stop boycotting the defense budget bill and put it on the agenda.
Additional reporting by Chen Yun
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