A visiting researcher from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative US think tank, blamed the leadership of the People First Party (PFP) for holding hostage the long-stalled US arms procurement deal, but said he was optimistic the bill could eventually pass.
AEI research fellow Dan Blumenthal, who served from 2002 to last year as the head of Taiwan affairs in the Defense Department, said that rival parties in the legislature would likely be able to cut a deal were it not for PFP leadership.
"Below the leadership levels, people in the PFP who know the military matters will come to some sort of agreement with DPP," Blumenthal said. "This has become a political football. Once it goes to the defense committee with their experts, we believe strongly that something will pass."
Blumenthal said that a number of "serious PFP military types" realized Taiwan's need to upgrade its defense capabilities by passing the special arms budget.
Blumenthal made the comments after he and other researchers from the AEI met with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
AEI researcher Gary Schmitt, a former adviser to the Pentagon, told reporters that the KMT leader appeared to want to make progress on the bill.
"There is a sense that [Ma] would like to move forward on this, but that unfortunately, his junior partner in the [Legislature Yuan,] the PFP, is making that impossible to do it at this point," Schmitt said.
AEI president Christopher DeMuth yesterday urged Taiwan not to let political bickering stand in the way of national defense.
"It is a matter of concern to the United States and AEI that the politics in Taiwan has been interfering for a long time the necessary steps for prudent self-defense," DeMuth said.
Asked about former president Lee Teng-hui's (
"It would be very expensive to have the kind of capability that would actually matter if Taiwan were to go toward that kind of direction of striking capabilities. There is no defense on the cheap," Blumenthal said.
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS