An exchange between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would be held in Beijing next week if the KMT blocked the special defense budget today, people familiar with the matter said.
The KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) later blocked the Executive Yuan’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.68 billion) special defense budget from proceeding through the legislative process for the 10th time.
During a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Procedure Committee, the KMT and TPP, which together hold a majority in the legislature, voted not to include the special defense budget in Friday’s legislative meeting — the last of the current legislative session.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
The committee passed the proposed agenda by a vote of 10 in favor and eight against.
Meanwhile, earlier media reports had said that the KMT and Chinese Communist Party were planning to resume the Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum, better known as the “KMT-CCP Forum,” which has been suspended for nine years, although the KMT never officially confirmed such a meeting.
A forum would pave the way for a meeting between KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), people familiar with the matter said.
However, CCP authorities believe the KMT has fallen short in certain areas and needs to demonstrate “substantive actions” before the forum can be resumed, KMT sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The CCP had set conditions for the forum’s resumption, including that the KMT block the special defense budget, take a clear stance on “post-reunification” institutional arrangements and not support Taiwan-US supply chain cooperation, the sources said.
However, these conditions are starkly out of step with public opinion in Taiwan, and the KMT judged the political cost to be too high, instead proposing a scaled-down “think tank exchange” as a possible way forward, they said.
The exchange, which was expected to be held in Beijing from today through Thursday this week, would be postponed to Monday through Wednesday next week, people familiar with the matter said.
The 40-person delegation would be led by KMT Vice Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) and representatives of the party’s think tank, and would be hosted by China's Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤), an informed source said.
The CCP is open to the KMT’s proposed think tank exchanges on issues such as tourism, technology, green energy and low birthrates, which the KMT sees as a temporary buffer despite Beijing viewing it as a stalling tactic, Taiwanese businesspeople based in Beijing said.
More broadly, the KMT is exploring renewed cross-strait economic cooperation regarding labor, supply chains and energy, people familiar with the matter said.
In response, the KMT said that such reports are untrue and deliberately manipulate false information.
The party vowed to take legal action.
Reviewing the national defense and arms procurement budget is part of the Legislative Yuan’s lawful duties and has no connection with cross-strait exchanges, the KMT said.
While opposition parties support reinforcing defense capabilities, scrutinizing large budgets that lack comprehensive explanations, are disproportionate in scale and unclear in structure is a matter of accountability to taxpayers and a fundamental responsibility of the legislature, the party said.
No form of cross-strait exchange, think tank dialogue or inter-party interaction has ever involved any quid pro quo, nor could arms purchases, defense policy or legislative decisions be used as preconditions, the KMT said.
Deliberately distorting the lawful oversight of the defense budget into a political transaction not only defies basic common sense but also seriously misleads the public, it said.
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