TAIPEI, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's legislature has passed a revised version of a special arms procurement bill, cutting the total budget from the massive 1.25 trillion New Taiwan dollars (about 40 billion U.S. dollars) proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities to 780 billion New Taiwan dollars.

The revision was jointly advanced by the opposition Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) in a vote on Friday while DPP lawmakers abstained from the vote in protest over the cuts.

The arms procurement bill has triggered heated debate across the island in recent months, with opposition parties and sections of the public questioning both the scale and transparency of the spending plan.

The Taiwan region's leader Lai Ching-te has pledged to raise the island's defense budget to 5 percent of GDP by 2030 and reportedly plans to spend a total of 40 billion U.S. dollars on arms purchases over the next eight years. He described the initiative as a "necessary investment" aimed at addressing regional security challenges and strengthening the so-called "asymmetric warfare" capabilities.

During the legislative process, the KMT and TPP repeatedly blocked the bill from advancing. According to local media reports, legislative head Han Kuo-yu convened four rounds of cross-party consultations, but lawmakers remained divided over key procurement items and the overall budget ceiling.

The two opposition parties finally reached a consensus a day before the vote on setting the cap at 780 billion New Taiwan dollars.

In a statement posted on Facebook on Friday, KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun said the opposition parties had upheld the legislature's bottom line. She accused the DPP of failing to provide clear details about the spending plan while using the defense of Taiwan as justification.

Critics within Taiwan have questioned whether the island can sustain such large-scale military purchases.

According to local media outlet Storm Media, Su Chi, former head of Taiwan's mainland affairs authority, argued that Taiwan could hardly afford procurement on such a scale, describing the planned spending as paying "protection fees."

Wu Cheng-tien, chairman of the New Party, criticized the authorities for prioritizing arms purchases over livelihood issues such as soaring housing prices and declining birth rates.

To push its secessionist agenda, the DPP has long exaggerated the so-called military threat from the mainland.

A recent poll released by the Taiwan-based Democracy Foundation showed that 57.6 percent of respondents agreed that relying solely on arms purchases would not truly protect Taiwan.

In her Friday statement, Cheng said efforts should be made to expand dialogue and exchanges with the mainland in order to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait.

At a recent forum, Lee Sheng-feng, vice chairman of the New Party, said Taiwan's future development should be based on its shared historical, cultural and people-to-people ties with the mainland, which he described as the true guarantee of peace. ■