00:00Taiwan's defense ministry has slammed a new spending proposal from the main opposition,
00:05Womindang. It's about a quarter of the budget put forward by President Lai Qingda late last year
00:10and puts conditions on U.S. arms deals. The two bills will now go up against another one from
00:16the smaller opposition Taiwan People's Party in the legislature. Our reporter Larry Isiano has
00:21been covering this story and joins us live from our Taipei newsroom. Larry, what's the progress
00:27on these bills so far? Hi, Jeremy. So to talk about the three bills you just mentioned,
00:35today lawmakers are in session to advance them to committee next week before an upcoming March 15th
00:41deadline. Now, this is mostly a procedural step and paves the way for these bills to be debated more
00:46fully. Now, the original proposal by the Lai administration was for $40 billion U.S. spread
00:53out over eight years, funding an already agreed upon arms package from the U.S. in addition
00:58to Tito missile defense system and 200,000 drones. The TPP's bill only funds a U.S. arms deal and
01:03has
01:04a spending cap of about $13 billion. The KMT's bill is roughly $11 billion on what they're calling a
01:09plus-n basis, providing a path for future arms sales if they are government-to-government agreements
01:14and if they receive further legislative approval. But the defense ministry says the KMT's proposal
01:20isn't feasible. It leaves gaps in Taiwan's defenses and has impossible to meet requirements.
01:50arm transfers normally take years to complete, especially ones that include weapons as complex
01:56and as precision as these are.
01:59Furthermore, Taiwan has little control
02:02over U.S. arms production.
02:05So, Larry, the legislature is going to need
02:07to move pretty quickly on these bills, right?
02:11That's right.
02:13These bills, or these letters of offer and acquisition
02:16for some of these weapons have an expiration date
02:19of March 15th.
02:20In the event that Taiwan does not manage
02:23to sign these bills in time,
02:24the U.S. can sell some of these weapons
02:25to other countries or counter with new
02:28or different prices.
02:30Now, to avoid this situation,
02:32the Ministry of Defense is asking for authorization
02:35to sign these letters in advance
02:38and then return to the normal procurement process.
02:41Furthermore, this comes amid a lot of U.S. pressure
02:44on Taiwanese lawmakers to take the country's defenses
02:47more seriously as well as recognize
02:49the threat that China poses.
02:51This is also complicated by the fact that
02:54at the end of this month,
02:55U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled
02:57to head to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping,
02:59and it is reported by some media outlets
03:02that he has delayed Taiwanese arms sales
03:04until after that meeting to avoid antagonizing Beijing.
03:09Thanks, Larry.
03:10That was Larry Isiano reporting from our Taipei Newsroom.
03:13And this has been watching the pandemic.
03:13And there's been an independent
Comments