The Legislative Yuan yesterday advanced a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP)-sponsored bill governing arms procurement packages approved by the US to a committee review.
The move came after the 113-seat legislative body, where TPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers hold a combined majority, voted down a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) motion to review the Cabinet’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget bill.
Contrasting the Cabinet’s bill, the TPP’s is narrow in scope, covering only five of the eight weapons systems approved for sale by the US Department of State last month and setting a spending cap of NT$400 billion.
Photo: CNA
The TPP’s proposal allocates NT$126.7 billion for 60 M109A7 self-propelled howitzers along with 4,080 precision rounds, and NT$127.6 billion for 82 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems.
It covers anti-armor loitering munition systems, capped at NT$34.7 billion, 70 Javelin anti-
armor missile launchers and 1,050 missiles, capped at NT$11.8 billion, and 24 TOW-2B anti-armor missile launchers and 1,545 missiles, capped at NT$11.1 billion.
Several preapproved US weapons sales present in the Cabinet’s special budget are omitted, including US$1.01 billion for tactical mission network software, US$96 million for AH-1W helicopter parts and US$91.4 million for Harpoon missile support.
Funding for partnerships with the local arms industry, procurement of 200,000 drones and the T-Dome multilayered air defense system to protect Taiwan against Chinese missiles and aircraft are absent.
Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) following the passage of the TPP bill on the last day of the legislative session, said the KMT and TPP “politicizing” the issue could delay Taiwan’s weapons procurement plans and negatively affect its efforts to build combat readiness.
Lee accused the TPP of merely copying and pasting publicly available information released by the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and crudely chopping out parts of the Cabinet’s proposal.
The TPP bill “lacked strategic vision and force-building planning, deviated from established military procurement practices and ignored defense self-reliance,” she said.
The MND has repeatedly warned that the TPP’s bill covers only the procurement of certain equipment and fails to establish supporting measures, Lee said, which could render implementation by the ministry “impossible.”
The legislature has repeatedly blocked a review of the Cabinet’s special defense budget since President William Lai (賴清德) announced it in November last year, with the KMT and TPP demanding that Lai first brief lawmakers and take questions about the proposal — a request that the DPP has said is unconstitutional
While urging Lai to appear before the Legislative Yuan to report on the planned US arms purchases, KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi said yesterday his caucus is working with KMT headquarters on the details of the proposed legislative revisions.
The KMT caucus would put forward its own version of the amendments, he said.
Cooperation with the TPP caucus remains important and the KMT caucus’ discussions with the TPP caucus would continue, he said.
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