As regional security risks intensify and Taiwan’s military readiness becomes ever more urgent, President William Lai (賴清德) has launched his “Ten Talks on Uniting the Country,” with the fourth session outlining the government’s national defense strategy. Yet the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has chosen to politicize the defense budget instead of engaging constructively.
Not only has the KMT refused to reflect on its malicious freezing of key force-building projects, but it has also misrepresented the budget review process and distorted data.
The KMT claims that during former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration, the defense budget’s share of GDP reached a record low. However, this argument completely disregards the Special Budget for Enhancing Naval and Air Combat Power, initiated in 2021 and totaling NT$237.3 billion (US$8.07 billion).
This special budget is a crucial investment aimed at procuring precision missiles, mass-producing high-performance naval vessels and improving the Coast Guard Administration’s wartime transition capabilities — key components for bolstering Taiwan’s overall defense resilience.
Moreover, in recent years, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration has also allocated funds for improving military barracks, renewing old veterans’ villages, advancing defense medical education and improving military supply production capacity. If we combine regular budgets, special budgets and fund allocations, the total defense budget grew from NT$358.5 billion in 2016 to NT$647 billion, as originally proposed for last year — an increase of more than 80 percent. This demonstrates a firm commitment to the policy of “preparing for war to prevent war, being able to fight in order to avoid fighting.”
Nevertheless, the KMT has launched an aggressive campaign on social media, deliberately citing only selective portions of the overall defense budget, excluding special and fund-based expenditures. This misleading tactic deceives the public and contributes nothing to a substantive policy discussion.
During the review process for the 2025 defense budget, KMT legislators initiated numerous proposals for malicious cuts and freezes. These targeted items such as the development of a drone industrial park funded by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and the indigenous submarine program, in which 50 percent of funding for some projects was frozen.
Budgets intended for military exchanges, ammunition and fuel replenishment, and general military operations were also frozen, which accounted for 30 percent of the Ministry of National Defense’s operational expenses, totaling NT$74.4 billion.
These freezes disrupt the military’s normal force-building timeline and even prompted US Senator Dan Sullivan to say that the KMT was “playing a dangerous game.”
What is truly shocking is that the KMT on social media say that “only 1.06 percent of the 2025 defense budget was cut, the lowest in recent years,” attempting to portray itself as cautiously supportive of defense.
However, this figure was based on the first-phase budget review in the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, not the final version, passed after the opposition’s sweeping cuts. In other words, the KMT deliberately conflated its own initial freeze proposals with the final outcomes, thereby misleading the public and severely undermining the professionalism and credibility of the legislative process.
Such selective disclosure of information has turned the Legislative Yuan’s budget system into a political tool, damaging procedural justice and eroding public trust in national defense and the legislature.
A critical question remains: Why does the KMT freeze core defense funding crucial to national security, while simultaneously making a show of supporting pay raises and benefits for soldiers, attempting to create a false image of “rational support for the military”?
This two-faced approach, which involves sabotaging force development on one hand and pandering to military morale on the other, is irresponsible and harmful to national security.
Instead of reflecting on its reckless cuts to the defense budget, the KMT has resorted to manipulative rhetoric, falsely accusing the DPP of not supporting the military in an attempt to shift political blame and mislead public opinion.
National defense is not a partisan issue; it is the lifeline of Taiwan’s collective security. Treating the defense budget as a political bargaining chip only weakens troop morale and shakes international allies’ confidence in Taiwan’s determination to defend itself.
Only by honestly confronting the legislature’s role and rationally reviewing the budget could we truly demonstrate support for our armed forces and safeguard Taiwan’s front line.
Gahon Chiang is a congressional staff member in the office of DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting, focusing on Taiwan’s national security policy.
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