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floating US $ 9.3 billion of bonds. the biggest item of expenditure remains defence at $9.2 billion (25 % of the total, although a modest decrease of 2.9% from the previous year).
9. Discussion of constitutional reforms continued apace. The ruling Kuomintang's task force on reform proposed to reduce the numbers in the new National Assembly from 2,961 seats to 402 and in the Legislative Yuan from an original 773 seats to 161. they also voted to have "all of China" represented by 80 special candidates for the National Assembly and 30 for the Legislative Yuan, together with 20 and 6 seats respectively for overseas Chinese. This would leave 305 and 125 seats in each body open to election on Taiwan. While reform continues to be much talked about, in practice the bad old ways continue. Premier Hau Pei-tsun walked out of the opening session of the Legislative Yuan on 26 February annoyed by the filibustering tactics of the opposition who were preventing him making his opening address. He came back two hours later and apologised to the President of the Legislative Yuan, Liang Su-yung, for his impatience.
10. The anniversary of the 1947 massacre of Taiwanese on 28 February passed of peacefully. The Kuomintang has been trying hard to make public amends by allowing open historical discussion of the incident, and promising to make public relevant documents. An official Taiwan government spokesman described criticism of Taiwan's campaign on law and order in a US State Department Human Rights report as a misunderstanding, but Taiwan seems to have felt that it did not come out too badly in the report.
8 March 1991
Far Eastern Section
Research & Analysis Department
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