Military Procurement Bill Talks Stalled, Huang Kuo-chang: Focusing Only on Financial Figures is Too Careless
Talks on Taiwan's special military procurement bill have stalled, with Taiwan People's Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang stating that focusing solely on the financial amount is too careless. The party is reportedly drafting an amendment to authorize the executive branch to appropriate a second batch of military procurement budget after obtaining a letter of offer and acceptance. Additionally, the party announced a labor rights declaration, including pension reform and extended maternity leave.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 29, 2026 at 18:41
- 🔍 Collected: April 29, 2026 at 19:01 (19 min after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 30, 2026 at 00:13 (5h 12m after Collected)
Taipei, April 29 (CNA) — The draft special act for national defense procurement is stalled. Taiwan People's Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang said today that the TPP caucus is drafting articles, considering a legislative framework that would authorize the executive branch to appropriate a second batch of military procurement budget after obtaining a letter of offer and acceptance. He criticized that only focusing on the financial figures of the military procurement bill is too careless.
Legislative Yuan President Han Kuo-yu convened party caucus negotiations on the draft special act for national defense procurement on April 27. Key articles, including procurement items and allocated amounts, were discussed. After about 70 minutes of discussion between the ruling and opposition parties, no concrete consensus was reached. Han Kuo-yu announced that another cross-party negotiation will be held at 3 PM on May 6.
In the afternoon, the Taiwan People's Party held a press conference to announce the “2026 Taiwan People's Party Labor Rights Declaration.” Huang Kuo-chang stated that the goal is to break the crisis of “low wages, long working hours, and no retirement security.” Its four concrete proposals include promoting pension reform, convening a national conference on pensions, and increasing employers' contribution ratio to labor pensions; promoting the extension of maternity leave to align with international standards, elevating parental leave to alleviate pressure, and extending the current 8-week maternity leave to 10 weeks initially, eventually reaching the international standard of 14 weeks.
Huang Kuo-chang also said that another goal is to implement paid family care leave and promote a family-friendly working hour system, implementing a “10-hour reduction in working hours per month” for workers with children under 12 years old; curbing illegal employment of migrant workers, strengthening country-to-country direct hiring mechanisms, establishing precise control mechanisms, supplementing industries with genuine labor shortages, preventing migrant workers from being used to suppress domestic labor conditions, and reducing layers of exploitation by intermediaries.
Regarding the military procurement bill, Huang Kuo-chang said in an interview that the TPP supports Taiwan's ability to enhance its self-defense. For military sales items already announced by the U.S. government, they are originally included in the TPP caucus's draft. For a possible second batch of military procurement, for legislative convenience, the TPP caucus's special act draft is also considering designing a legislative framework that would authorize the executive branch to appropriate a second batch of military procurement budget after obtaining a letter of offer and acceptance.
Huang Kuo-chang said that the TPP caucus has already begun drafting articles because Han Kuo-yu will convene negotiations on May 6. Party caucus members might meet before the negotiation to finalize the specific content of the articles. He reiterated that everyone is only concerned about the figures, “how much money in total, just a number, dealing with military procurement in this manner is too careless.”
In addition, the Taiwan People's Party held a Central Committee meeting today, which approved the new wave of nominations for city and county councilors in the 2026 direct municipal and county elections, passed by the election decision-making committee. Lin Tsang-yu was nominated to run for Yilan City Mayor. (Editor: Lin Ke-lun) 1150429
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Legislative Yuan President Han Kuo-yu convened party caucus negotiations on the draft special act for national defense procurement on April 27. Key articles, including procurement items and allocated amounts, were discussed. After about 70 minutes of discussion between the ruling and opposition parties, no concrete consensus was reached. Han Kuo-yu announced that another cross-party negotiation will be held at 3 PM on May 6.
In the afternoon, the Taiwan People's Party held a press conference to announce the “2026 Taiwan People's Party Labor Rights Declaration.” Huang Kuo-chang stated that the goal is to break the crisis of “low wages, long working hours, and no retirement security.” Its four concrete proposals include promoting pension reform, convening a national conference on pensions, and increasing employers' contribution ratio to labor pensions; promoting the extension of maternity leave to align with international standards, elevating parental leave to alleviate pressure, and extending the current 8-week maternity leave to 10 weeks initially, eventually reaching the international standard of 14 weeks.
Huang Kuo-chang also said that another goal is to implement paid family care leave and promote a family-friendly working hour system, implementing a “10-hour reduction in working hours per month” for workers with children under 12 years old; curbing illegal employment of migrant workers, strengthening country-to-country direct hiring mechanisms, establishing precise control mechanisms, supplementing industries with genuine labor shortages, preventing migrant workers from being used to suppress domestic labor conditions, and reducing layers of exploitation by intermediaries.
Regarding the military procurement bill, Huang Kuo-chang said in an interview that the TPP supports Taiwan's ability to enhance its self-defense. For military sales items already announced by the U.S. government, they are originally included in the TPP caucus's draft. For a possible second batch of military procurement, for legislative convenience, the TPP caucus's special act draft is also considering designing a legislative framework that would authorize the executive branch to appropriate a second batch of military procurement budget after obtaining a letter of offer and acceptance.
Huang Kuo-chang said that the TPP caucus has already begun drafting articles because Han Kuo-yu will convene negotiations on May 6. Party caucus members might meet before the negotiation to finalize the specific content of the articles. He reiterated that everyone is only concerned about the figures, “how much money in total, just a number, dealing with military procurement in this manner is too careless.”
In addition, the Taiwan People's Party held a Central Committee meeting today, which approved the new wave of nominations for city and county councilors in the 2026 direct municipal and county elections, passed by the election decision-making committee. Lin Tsang-yu was nominated to run for Yilan City Mayor. (Editor: Lin Ke-lun) 1150429
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The text, images, and audio/video on this website may not be reproduced, broadcast, transmitted, or utilized without authorization.