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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Taiwan Withdraws Budget for U.S. Arms |
| 2005-08-25 |
| TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Taiwan's Cabinet on Wednesday withdrew a special budget for a massive U.S. weapons package, part of a political maneuver aimed at getting the opposition-controlled legislature to pass the long-delayed package. For more than a year, the opposition Nationalist Party and its allies have used their slim legislative majority to hold up a special $15.3 billion appropriation, saying it will spark an arms race with rival China that would bankrupt Taiwan. Included in the package are eight diesel-powered submarines, 12 anti-submarine aircraft, and six Patriot missile batteries. Cabinet spokesman Cho Jung-tai said the Cabinet would decide next week on a new proposal to finance the weapons, divided between a modified special budget and the regular defense allocation. Cho said the military was still working out the proposal's details. However, he said, the general direction was to move the Patriot missile allocation of more than $3 billion from the special budget to the regular defense budget. Both come from state coffers, but the defense budget carries more rigorous oversight provisions, suggesting the government believes the new transparency will convince the opposition to drop its long-standing objections to the package. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 "saying it will spark an arms race with rival China" Is this a serious comment? Damm their LLL's are freekin dummer than ours. Our LLL's may not let us use the military but at least they allow us to have one. China has been steadily raising their military budget popping out subs huge numbers or missles modernization of old stuff hell even working on a carrier the Volakg. I think the "arms race" already started without them. |
| Posted by: C-Low 2005-08-25 12:52 |
| #4 Actually Steve its partisan politics at work to trump a bit of national security (in this case Taiwans) again. The White House and some Congress members already warned there would be a backlash if this happened. |
| Posted by: Valentine 2005-08-25 12:08 |
| #3 ... part of a political maneuver aimed at getting the opposition-controlled legislature to pass the long-delayed package. That does not sound like unwillingness to 'defend their own freedom'. They are just moving the money from one pile to another. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2005-08-25 10:08 |
| #2 As long as thousands and thousands (maybe even millions) of American servicement are not killed by IMI uavs, I'm content. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-08-25 03:26 |
| #1 The signal this is gonna send to the US people and Congress here is Taiwan is not ready to defend its own freedom and is depending on having a US "blank check" to basically come and defend them no matter the circumstances. I suspect someone is gonna get this thrown back into their faces rather badly. |
| Posted by: Valentine 2005-08-25 02:56 |