• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

KMT WIN MAKES MAJOR ARMS PROCUREMENT MORE UNLIKELY: U. S. SCHOLAR

ROC Central News Agency

2005-12-04 19:17:30

    Washington, Dec. 3 (CNA) The Kuomintang's (KMT) victory in the Dec. 3 "three-in-one" elections over the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will make it harder for a major U. S. arms procurement package to clear Taiwan's legislature, a U. S. scholar said Saturday.

    The election results will push the ruling DPP to examine and adjust its policies, while the main opposition KMT is expected to further toughen its stance, thereby making it harder for the arms package to clear the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan, June Teufel Dreyer, a professor of political science of the University of Miami said.

    The DPP administration's poor performance and a series of scandals seriously hurt its showing in the weekend elections, and the ruling party will be forced to re-assess its policies to fend off defeats in future elections, she said. On the other hand, the KMT's victory will boost party chairman Ma Ying-jeou's ambition to vie for presidency in 2008, she pointed out.

    The election outcome has largely slashed the possibility of the arms bill's passage at the Legislative Yuan, a situation which might lead to more friction between Taiwan and the United States, she said.

    She also predicted that major figures of the opposition "pan blue alliance" of the KMT, the People First Party (PFP) and the New Party, will visit China more frequently in the future.

    The KMT won a landslide victory in the "three-in-one" elections by taking 14 of the 23 city mayors and county magistrates posts up for grabs, well ahead of 6 seized by the DPP. Of the 901 city and county councilors seats, the KMT won 408, while the DPP won just 192. The KMT also took a majority of the 319 village and township chief posts being contested, winning 173 to the DPP's 35.

    The DPP has actively been advocating for the passage of the NT$350 billion (about US$10.5 billion) special budget for the major military procurement bill at the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan since after President Chen Shui-bian narrowly won re-election in May 2004 against the "pan blue alliance" ticket.

    The bill for the arms procurement, which includes eight diesel-fueled submarines and 12 anti-submarines aircraft, has been stalled at the Legislative Yuan since the middle of last year. However, lawmakers have agreed to include the budget for the purchase of six PAC III Patriot anti-missile batteries, the third item in the package, in regular annual budget for the Ministry of National Defense.

(By Olive Lin and Flor Wang)

ENDITEM/Li