The US State Department has expressed concern about possible delays in Taiwan’s financing of its military spending amid the island’s adoption of a reduced version of the additional military budget.
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Formerly Legislative yuan (unicameral parliament) Taiwan has adopted by a majority vote an additional bill to finance the purchase of certain shipments of American military equipment in the amount of 24.8 billion US dollars.
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“While the adoption of this special defense budget after an unproductive delay is encouraging, the United States believes that further delays in financing the remaining proposed defense assets would be a concession to the Chinese Communist Party,” a State Department official said.
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The island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), led by Lai Qingde, had previously proposed an additional military budget of 1.25 trillion new Taiwanese dollars (40 billion US dollars). But Taiwan’s opposition-controlled parliament has repeatedly blocked its adoption and submitted its own version of the budget.
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Beijing considers Taiwan to be an integral part of China, and compliance with the “one China” principle is a prerequisite for other states wishing to establish or maintain diplomatic relations with China. The sale of American weapons to Taiwan has traditionally remained one of the key points of tension in relations between Washington and Beijing.
