KMT TO DISCUSS ARMS PROCUREMENT PACKAGE IN SEPTEMBER AT EARLIEST
ROC Central News Agency
2005-07-30 20:46:25
Taipei, July 30 (CNA) The legislative caucus of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) said Saturday that it will only begin considering an arms procurement package from the United States in September at the earliest, when the new session of the Legislative Yuan will begin.
The KMT caucus made the remarks after reports that John J. Tkacik, Jr., a research fellow in China policy in the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, criticized Taiwan's "pro-China pan-blue alliance" for blocking the arms procurement package to ingratiate voters when he appeared at a hearing at the U.S. House of Representatives recently. He suggested that the U.S. government not deal with the alliance.
Tkacik said the U.S. should sell offensive weapons to Taiwan, as it is in U.S. interests for Taiwan to make pre-emptive strikes on Chinese military bases that are likely to attack Taiwan.
Tseng Yung-chuan, executive director of the KMT's Policy Committee, said the KMT has not received information on the matter from the United States and said the party is under no pressure.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has requested a special legislative session to discuss the arms procurement package and five other major bills, but Tseng said that if a special legislative session is convened, it will only discuss a flood-control project.
The "pan-blue alliance " of the KMT and its ally People First party (PFP), which has a slight majority in the Legislative Yuan, has blocked the special budget proposal for the arms procurement of eight diesel-electric submarines, six Patriot PAC III anti-missile batteries and a squadron of 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft, for two consecutive sessions since the Executive Yuan first submitted it in June 2004. The opposition parties believe the price tag is too high and that it should be included in the annual budget rather than a special budget.
PFP Legislator Lin Yu-fang said Tkacik was "rude" to suggest that the U.S. government stop dealing with pan-blue figures and to suggest selling offensive weapons to Taiwan.
According to Lin, Tkacik represents an "ultra-right view," which he claimed is not the mainstream view of the U.S. He represents the views of U.S. arms dealers, making his words "worthless, " Lin claimed.
Lin, a former director of the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies at the Tamkang University, claimed that these "ultra-right forces" in the U.S. government brought the nation into the Afghanistan and Iraq wars with what he said were "heavy casualties and big military expenses, " indirectly prompting terrorist organizations to expand and enlarge their attacks. For this reason, the U.S. government has adjusted its course, he claimed.
Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Lee Wen-chung, a convener of the Defense Committee in the legislature, expressed reservations about Tkacik's suggestion that the U.S. stop dealing with pan-blue figures, saying that this "might have interfered" with Taiwan's internal affairs.
Lee said that the KMT has maintained a "pro-U.S. and anti-China" policy since time of the late President Chiang Kai-shek although it has recently adjusted the policy, but he claimed that whether this equals "pro-China" is yet to be observed.
However, he welcomed Tkacik's suggestion on selling Taiwan offensive weapons, saying that a majority of countries possess defensive and offensive weapons with no apparent distinction.
He also expressed worry that the cross-Taiwan Strait military situation is tilting toward China and urged the opposition parties to put the arms procurement bill onto the legislative agenda so that rational and substantial debate on the package can take place.
(By Lilian Wu)
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