Lai Calls for National Unity in Speech Criticized by the Opposition

TaiwanPlus News

President Lai Ching-te wants to unify the nation with a series of speeches, but his latest speech on national defense has fallen flat with the opposition bloc.

Transcript

00:00President Lai Qingde gets a round of applause as he takes the stage, but he's preparing

00:05to address a nation riven by partisan strife, and where not everyone feels quite so warmly

00:10towards him.

00:12This is number four in a series of ten speeches Lai is banking on to bring the country together

00:18and bridge the divide between his ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the opposition.

00:23But the main theme of this speech, defense spending, is a touchy one, part of a broader

00:27budget battle in the legislature that has been one of the major political stories of

00:31the year so far.

00:34Lai says he's alarmed at the scale of investment China's been putting into its military, in

00:38part with an eye to take over Taiwan by force if need be.

00:42The Chinese military plans are not looking at any of the political parties.

00:47It's increasing every year.

00:50He says the Chinese military threat now extends far out into the Pacific, past Taiwan, and

01:05that Taiwan needs to adapt by raising its own military spending.

01:09He hopes a special US$14 billion budget the Cabinet has prepared will help fill in the spending

01:14gap, while also helping civilians daily lives.

01:21Lai says the opposition bloc in the legislature made historic cuts to the budget, and froze much

01:41of it earlier in the year, a political sore point with the opposition.

01:45Already, they've hit back at the speech.

01:48The smaller opposition, Taiwan People's Party, says most of the budget is unfrozen, so that

01:53is a moot point.

01:54And the main opposition party, the Kuomintang, says the defense budget is already at a historic

01:59high.

02:00One prominent critic of the speech says it was a political ploy, as two dozen KMT lawmakers

02:05face being recalled.

02:06He says the speech undermined Lai's stated goal of achieving unity, and was actually divisive.

02:33Lai still has six speeches to go in his planned series, but it seems they may not be hitting

02:37the notes he'd hoped for with some of the political groups he wants to persuade.

02:42Chris Ma and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.

02:44Chris Ma and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.

02:45Chris Ma and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.

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