For an eight-year period with a budget size of 1.25 trillion yuan, the Taiwanese government‘s administrative body’s version of the Special Military Buying Budget Ordinance has been repeatedly blocked, while the People‘s Party’s version of the Military Buying Ordinance has been handed over for review. The above situation has led to frequent pressure from the U.S., which has also sparked a political debate in Taiwan. Regarding this, the Taiwanese United Press recently questioned, “Recently, the Taiwanese authorities have brought up the U.S. to pressure the opposition party over the obstruction of the ‘defense special budget’ as well as the Taiwan-U.S. trade agreement. Where does this place Taiwanese public opinion?”
On January 27th, the KMT and the People’s Party blocked the military procurement Ordinance for the 10th time with a numerical advantage at the Procedure Committee, a popular opinion body in Taiwan. On January 30th, the Blue and White once again joined forces to pass a proposal to submit the People’s Party’s “Special Ordinance Draft for Military Procurement” for review at the Legislative Council. The draft version lists 6 procurement items, including the “Hymas” multiple rocket launcher system, with a total upper limit of 400 billion New Taiwan dollars, arranged in a one-year, one-period manner.
The U.S. has reacted strongly to this. Roger Wicker, chairman of the U.S. Senate Military Committee, posted on social media on the 2nd day to express disappointment at the Taiwanese opposition‘s drastic cuts to the defense budget proposed by Lai, claiming that this move may send “wrong signals” to the world. On the same day, Republican Senator Sullivan posted a false claim that Taiwan‘s “legislative court” was adjourned without passing the budget required for self-defense, and that the leadership of the opposition Nationalist Party is communicating in Beijing, “it‘s not difficult to see the intentions behind this.”
In addition, Lai Qingde issued a statement on the 2nd, accusing the opposition party of ignoring the so-called “continental threat” and obstructing the budget, asking the Taiwanese public to judge. The Democratic Progressive Party‘s “establishment committee” claimed that the KMT‘s embrace of the mainland would cause Taiwan to lose international support.
In response to remarks from the Democratic Progressive Party, the Nationalist Party‘s Chairman Zheng Liwen refuted that the opposition party only demanded that the ruling party be “legitimate and constitutional”, and that the responsibility for the?? stalemate lies entirely with Lai Qingde. Nationalist Party spokesperson Niu Xuting said bluntly that the authorities cannot be allowed to write blank checks, and that if they forcibly push for military procurement and abandon the essence of democracy because of American pressure, it is undoubtedly self-contradictory.
Taiwan‘s United News Network commented that in order for a full public assessment, full disclosure of budget details is needed first, allowing the public to see clearly whether funds are being spent on the blade. The United Press criticized that the U.S. now not only communicates directly with the senior officials of the Democratic Progressive Party, but has also begun to intervene in the “legislative court”. The public cannot be kept in the dark, and it needs to ensure that the interests of the entire population will not be “secretly traded” by a minority.