Taiwan military criticized for expensive water procurement

TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's defense ministry sparked fierce legislative criticism Thursday (Oct. 9) over plans to purchase military water supplies at NT$120 (around US$3.93) per bottle. Kuomintang (KMT, 國民黨), Taiwan's main opposition party, legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) challenged the Ministry of National Defense (MND, 國防部) over the extraordinary procurement costs, forcing officials to defend specialized wartime requirements.

The Legislative Yuan (立法院), Taiwan's parliament, is reviewing a special resilience statute allocating NT$113.2 billion (around US$3.7 billion) for defense procurement. Ma questioned additional controversial purchases including NT$50,000 (around US$1,639) chairs for the Joint Operations Command Center (國防部聯合作戰中心) and NT$800 million (around US$26.2 million) allocated for specialized 500-milliliter bottled water supplies.

Defense Spokesperson Lieutenant General Sun Li-fang (孫立方) defended the procurement, clarifying that furniture consists of large modular conference tables accommodating 50 personnel. Sun emphasized the chairs feature specialized ergonomic design with five-year warranties for high-pressure operational environments. Officials stressed that water storage requires special conditions and extended five-year shelf life to meet critical wartime operational requirements.

Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) assured lawmakers the ministry would abandon expensive chair purchases and revise procurement plans. Major General Chen I-chih (陳益志) from the Combined Logistics Command (國防部後次室後勤管理處), Taiwan's military supply division, revealed initial pricing referenced Japanese suppliers but subsequent negotiations identified domestic manufacturers capable of meeting five-year shelf life specifications. ◼ (At time of reporting, US$1 equals approximately NT$30.518)