Taiwan opposition party agrees to consider defence Bill
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Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te speaks during a press conference addressing national security concerns on Feb 11.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Taipei - Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s US$40 billion (S$50.5 billion) defence spending plan will be reviewed in Parliament after an opposition party on Feb 11 did a U-turn and agreed to send the contentious Bill to committee.
Mr Lai’s proposal was stalled for two months as lawmakers from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which together control Parliament, refused to consider it without concessions from the government.
The TPP caucus has agreed to send the government’s version of the special legislation to committee for joint review, the party said in a statement.
KMT chairwoman Cheng Li-wun, however, vowed on Feb 11 that her party “will not relent”.
Parliament is currently in recess and will resume on Feb 24.
As well as the government’s version, lawmakers will also consider the TPP’s stripped-down version of the defence Bill that allocates US$12.6 billion for military purchases.
TPP’s announcement came after Mr Lai on Feb 11 warned that Taiwan could be a “rupture in Indo-Pacific peace and stability” if the special defence budget was not passed.
“We hope that, given the increasingly complex regional situation, with China’s threat growing more serious, Taiwan’s defence budget must pass smoothly,” he said.
Taiwan has spent billions of dollars upgrading its military in the past decade, but is under intense US pressure to do more to protect itself against the growing threat from China, which claims the island is part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to annex it.
A US senator has warned that the KMT “is playing with fire” as it blocked the special defence budget.
Mr Lai, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its parliamentary majority in elections that swept him to power in 2024, has vowed to increase defence spending to more than 3 per cent of GDP in 2026.
DPP caucus chief Chung Chia-pin said with TPP’s support, the special defence budget could finally move forward for a committee review in the next parliamentary session.
“Strengthening national defence is a shared expectation across party lines. We are pleased that the TPP is willing to join us in conducting a joint review of the Bill,” he told AFP.
“We will make it a priority Bill in the next session.”
The KMT caucus warned in a statement that the Cabinet’s version of the special defence budget “will never be passed”.
“Whether the Executive Yuan’s version is referred to a committee is irrelevant... The version that will be ultimately passed by the Legislature will not be its version, as the opposition parties are unlikely to accept it entirely,” it said. AFP
