Taiwan to Drop Plans for PAC-3 Acquisition

The Taiwanese Defense Ministry has said it would end its push to purchase six Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missile batteries from the United States, the Taiwanese Central News Agency reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 8).

The country’s legislature has in the past two years blocked two special arms budget bills that included provisions for the missile purchase. Opposition parties have argued that a 2004 referendum, which failed because less than 50 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots, bars the government from making the $4.3 billion PAC-3 purchase (Han Nai-kuo, Taiwanese Central News Agency/BBC Monitoring, Feb. 21).

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