The Cabinet yesterday approved a special budget of NT$610.8 billion (US$18.25 billion) for procuring arms from the US.
The draft bill must still be reviewed and approved by the legislature.
The money is to be spent over the next 15 years. While NT$412 billion would be marked for eight diesel-electric submarines, NT$145 billion would be allocated for six Patriot anti-missile systems and NT$53 billion for 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft.
While the Cabinet plans to issue bonds to raise NT$420 billion, NT$100 billion would come from selling public lands owned by the Ministry of Defense and NT$94 billion from selling shares of state-owned enterprises.
Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said yesterday at a press conference after the weekly closed-door Cabinet meeting that a special budget allocation was made because the Cabinet does not want arms purchases to be crowded out in annual budgets.
Chen said it is important to provide the armed forces with more advanced equipment, adding that China has made double-digit increases in its military budget every year since 1995 while Taiwan has been cutting military spending.
The nation's military expenditures accounted for 24.3 percent of the total budget in 1994. They accounted for only 16.5 percent last year.
``The Chinese Communists have boosted their military spending in recent years, and the Cabinet is very worried about it,'' Chen said.
US President George W. Bush made the offer to sell Taiwan the hardware three years ago.
The Cabinet has insisted that Taiwanese companies be involved in building the submarines, though the US has said that doing so would drive up the cost substantially.
Under the Cabinet's plan, state-run China Shipbuilding would send technicians overseas to observe construction of the first two submarines and learn about the design, production and logistics involved in building the vessels.
The Cabinet hopes the company would then be able to build one-third of the hardware for the third and fourth subs. For the fifth and sixth subs, the Cabinet hopes the company can build two-thirds of the hardware and then build all of the remaining two.
Lawmakers have questioned if the Patriot missiles could effectively counter China's ballistic or cruise missiles, and have complained about the high costs of other weapons.
Meanwhile, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
The delegation will meet with officials in the Department of Defense and the State Department, and will travel to Washington, DC, Texas and Hawaii.
additional reporting by Debby Wu
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS