Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers yesterday agreed to deliberate on Friday the government’s military budget.
The move came following negotiations with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and might signal that the KMT-TPP alliance could pass President William Lai’s (賴清德) eight-year defense budget.
A memo from the KMT-run National Policy Foundation showed that the party is leaning on lawmakers to back a separate bill that would earmark NT$350 billion (US$11.07 billion) for defense procurements, with “punitive articles” for delays, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported on Friday last week.
Photo: Taipei Times
However, the response from KMT politicians suggests a rift between the party leadership and its rank-and-file, with some saying that NT$350 billion would not be enough for the armed forces.
Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) previously told KMT lawmakers that the US has expressed a preference for Taiwan to pass a NT$900 billion defense budget.
Former foundation executive Ling Tao (凌濤) wrote on Facebook yesterday that the nation needs NT$900 billion to pay for the equipment necessary for defense.
KMT Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) on Monday said that KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) and several others support an NT$810 billion allocation instead of the leadership’s smaller proposal.
However, KMT Legislator Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐) backed the leadership’s proposal, saying that military spending should not involve “performative patriotism.”
The clashing visions would have to be resolved in the legislature, as only lawmakers, not party functionaries, have the authority to propose a budget to challenge the government’s bill.
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday criticized the KMT leadership’s proposal, saying that the Cabinet’s NT$1.25 trillion bill is an integrated package without superfluous elements for bargaining.
The planned “T-Dome” air defense program, artificial intelligence boosted kill chains and an improved domestic defense industry cannot be achieved without the allocation, he said.
The KMT leadership’s “punitive articles” would harm national security, Cho said.
KMT Culture and Communication Committee deputy director Yin Nai-ching (尹乃菁) on Monday said the “punitive articles” would not be in the party’s bill, but proposed as separate legislation.
The KMT’s shift in policy came after 37 US congressional members in a joint statement on Feb. 12 called on the legislature to approve the defense budget.
When the Legislative Yuan convened on Tuesday last week, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) authorized inter-party negotiations on military spending and scheduled the Cabinet’s presentation on defense for Friday.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS