TAIPEI: Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s $40 billion defense spending plan will be reviewed in parliament after an opposition party on Wednesday did a U-turn and agreed to send the contentious bill to committee.
Lai’s proposal was stalled for two months as lawmakers from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which together control parliament, refused to consider it without concessions from the government.
The TPP caucus has agreed to send the government’s version of the special legislation to committee for joint review, the party said in a statement.
KMT chairwoman Cheng Li-wun, however, vowed Wednesday that her party “will not relent.”
Parliament is currently in recess and will resume on February 24.
As well as the government’s version, lawmakers will also consider the TPP’s stripped-down version of the defense bill that allocates $12.6 billion for military purchases.
TPP’s announcement came after Lai on Wednesday warned that Taiwan could be a “rupture in Indo-Pacific peace and stability” if the special defense budget was not passed.
“We hope that, given the increasingly complex regional situation, with China’s threat growing more serious, Taiwan’s defense budget must pass smoothly,” Lai said.
Taiwan has spent billions of dollars upgrading its military in the past decade, but is under intense US pressure to do more to protect itself against the growing threat from China, which claims the island is part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to annex it.
A US senator has warned that the KMT “is playing with fire” as it blocked the special defense budget.
Lai, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its parliamentary majority in elections that swept him to power in 2024, has vowed to increase defense spending to more than three percent of GDP this year.
DPP caucus chief Chung Chia-pin said with TPP’s support, the special defense budget could finally move forward for a committee review in the next parliamentary session.
“Strengthening national defense is a shared expectation across party lines. We are pleased that the TPP is willing to join us in conducting a joint review of the bill,” he said.
“We will make it a priority bill in the next session.”
The KMT caucus warned in a statement that the cabinet’s version of the special defense budget “will never be passed.”
“Whether the Executive Yuan’s version is referred to a committee is irrelevant... The version that will be ultimately passed by the Legislature will not be its version, as the opposition parties are unlikely to accept it entirely,” it said.