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VICE DEFENSE MINISTER URGES QUICK PASSAGE OF ARMS PROCUREMENT PLAN

ROC Central News Agency

2005-04-09 14:09:28

    Taipei, April 9 (CNA) Vice Defense Minister Tsai Ming-hsien on Saturday urged the Legislative Yuan to pass the bill for a major arms procurement plan quickly.

    Tsai said legislators from across the party spectrum should put aside their differences and make the nation's interests a top priority and pass the major arms procurement package for six Patriot PAC-III anti-missile batteries, eight diesel-electric submarines and a squadron of 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft from the United States under a special budget.

    He made the remarks while attending a seminar during which he cited a poll conducted by the Chinese Culture University to back up his appeal.

    The poll found that 65 percent of northern Taiwan college students are unwilling to be enlisted into the military should the nation come under attack from China. Among these respondents, 30.5 percent said that Taiwan couldn't withstand an attack by China, while 25.6 percent said that they would only be cannon fodder if they fought.

    Tsai interpreted that two-thirds of the students wouldn't want to fight because they think that Taiwan doesn't have the capability to withstand a Chinese military attack and that resistance would be useless.

    To root out such defeatism, Tsai said, Taiwan's military must build up its combat capability to meet the threat from China.

    He expressed the hope that legislators could have a rational discussion so as to put the statute for the major arms procurement and its special budget up for review and that the proposal could clear the Legislative Yuan quickly.

    If the major arms procurement package can't be passed, then Taiwan will be unable to show to the United States and the international community that it is determined to defend itself, Tsai said.

    China would be more than happy to see the arms procurement proposal fail, he added.

    However, National Taiwan University professor Chang Ya-chung, speaking on the same occasion, didn't see eye to eye with Tsai on the issue.

    Chang said that cross-strait issues are political in nature, and that if political figures can't resolve the problems and only ask young people to go to war, it is only natural that the young people are unwilling to serve in the military.

    The legislature has failed to put the statute on the major arms procurement on the Legislative agenda for review since the start of its first session in February because the opposition Kuomintang and People First Party -- which together command a slight majority in the legislature -- do not agree with the government's decision to finance the package in a special budget, which is exempt from the legal cap on government spending.

    The statute has been blocked twice since the Cabinet lowered the ceiling price for the procurement package from the original NT$610.8 billion when it was first proposed in mid-2004 to $480 billion (US$15.38 billion) this year because a plan to make the submarines in Taiwan was dropped and because the new Taiwan dollar had appreciated against the U.S. dollar.

(By Lilian Wu)

enditem/Li