Opposition lawmakers yesterday blocked review of the special defense budget for the 10th time, while the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported that doing so might be a precondition for a summit between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing.
At a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Procedure Committee, the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party voted not to include the Executive Yuan’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.72 billion) special defense budget in Friday’s meeting — the final such meeting of this legislative session.
Chinese-language media have reported that the KMT and the CCP 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 has not confirmed that it is back on the schedule.
Photo: CNA
Sources said that the 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).
Yesterday, sources told the Liberty Times on condition of anonymity that CCP authorities believe that the KMT has fallen short in some areas and needs to demonstrate “substantive action” before the forum can take place.
The CCP’s conditions include that the KMT block the special defense budget, take a clear stance on institutional arrangements following “reunification” and not support Taiwan-US supply chain cooperation, the sources said.
However, the conditions are starkly out of step with public opinion in Taiwan and the KMT judged the political cost to be too high, so it proposed a scaled-down “think tank exchange” as a possible way forward, they said.
The exchange, which was expected to be held in Beijing from yesterday to tomorrow, would be postponed to Monday to 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 includes representatives of the party’s think tank, the sources said, adding that it would be hosted by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤).
The CCP is open to the KMT’s proposed think tank exchange on issues such as tourism, technology, green energy and low birthrates, despite its view that it is 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, sources said.
The KMT denied the reports, saying that they were manipulating false information.
It vowed to take legal action.
Reviewing the national defense and arms procurement budget is part of the legislature’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.
Using lawful oversight of the defense budget as a political bargaining chip not only defies basic common sense, but also seriously misleads the public, it said.
Additional reporting by Lin Hsin-han
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