Taipei: Opposition lawmakers voiced concern yesterday over Taiwan’s decreasing defense budget as the island forges closer ties with Beijing, saying it showed the government’s ignorance of the perceived Chinese threat.
Taiwan’s defense ministry has slashed spending in recent years, proposing to set aside Tw$314.5 billion ($10.5 billion) for next year, compared with Tw$317.2 billion in 2012.
China, on the other hand, has been increasing its military spending by double digits for most of the past decade as its economy, now the world’s second largest, grew at a rapid pace.
In 2012 alone, its military budget will rise 11.2 percent to 670.27 billion yuan ($106.41 billion).
“The Ma Ying-jeou administration has kept scaling back its military spending even though China’s threat to Taiwan has been on the rise the past few years,” said the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party legislator Hsiao Bi-khim.
“Ma had told voters during his election campaigns that the military spending would count for three percent of the gross domestic production. That goal has never been reached,” she told AFP.
Ties between Taipei and Beijing have eased markedly since Ma of the China-friendly Kuomintang was elected in March 2008 on a platform of ramping up trade and tourism links. He was re-elected in January for a second and the last four-year term.
“But the detente is just unilateral,” Hsiao said, in her reference to at least 1,600 ballistic missiles China has aimed at Taiwan.
Beijing still refuses to renounce its use of force should the island declare independence even though Taiwan has ruled itself for more than 60 years. They split at the end of a civil war in 1949.
Opposition questions Taiwan military cuts
