In an op-ed for the Taipei Times (“Foreign-run domestic politics,” Feb. 8, page 8), Howard Shen (沈正浩) — foreign press secretary for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) 2024 presidential campaign — paints the KMT as a misunderstood steward of fiscal responsibility, unfairly maligned by “misinformed” US senators. He writes that the KMT’s opposition to the NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.61 billion) special defense budget is a principled stand for legislative oversight.
That argument collapses the moment one examines the legislative record.
Shen said that a defense plan must survive the “scrutiny of its own legislature,” but the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party have blocked that budget from even entering the agenda 10 times. They cannot claim to be “scrutinizing” a document they refuse to let into the room.
Shen leans heavily on one statistic: The legislature last year passed a record-high defense budget of NT$471 billion. That number sounds impressive when divorced from the fact that China’s defense budget has risen every single year for decades and dwarfs Taiwan’s many times over. “Record high” in nominal terms means little when the threat environment has transformed so radically.
Shen calls the special budget an “administrative blank check.” If that were true, the logical legislative response would be to bring the bill to committee, demand specifics and amend the terms.
Instead, the KMT has held the entire budget hostage, demanding that President William Lai (賴清德) appear for an unprecedented, potentially unconstitutional question-and-answer session as ransom.
Shen points to the US$21 billion backlog of US arms as a reason to stop spending. “The docks remain empty,” he writes. This is a sleight of hand.
The new NT$1.25 trillion “T-Dome” budget is specifically designed for asymmetric warfare — with drones, loitering munitions and artificial intelligence-integrated systems. These are precisely the types of low-cost, high-impact technologies that can be delivered and deployed much faster than traditional platforms such as F-16s.
Second, defense procurement operates on decade-long cycles. Halting funding now because of current delivery delays is like a farmer refusing to plant a tree today because the one he ordered last year has not grown fruit yet.
Finally, there is the deterrence deficit: When US senators Roger Wicker and Dan Sullivan express disappointment, they are not victims of “disinformation.” They are looking at the math. If Taiwan signals it is unwilling to fund its own defense, it undercuts the primary argument for US support and intervention.
Stop pretending the KMT is “naive” or “confused.” They are seasoned political operators who know exactly how their arguments sound in Washington and how their actions look in Beijing.
Why is the KMT really blocking the budget? Shen mentions “peace through strength,” but the party’s leadership seems far more interested in “peace through proximity.” As the KMT blocks defense spending at home, KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) is signaling a desire for a high-level meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Beijing does not need to issue “orders” to the KMT; the alignment of interests is clear.
If the KMT can present itself as the only party capable of “cooling” tensions — by weakening Taiwan’s military posture — they hope to win back power as the “party of stability.” However, stability bought by unilateral disarmament is merely a stay of execution.
Shen concludes by asking the US to help Taiwan maintain a “democracy worth defending.” On this, we agree — but a democracy is only worth defending if its leaders prioritize the survival of the state.
By blocking the means for Taiwan to defend itself, the KMT is not protecting the “power of the purse”; they are emptying the armory while the enemy is at the gates.
If the KMT truly believes in a “reasonable” defense, they should stop the blockade, put the bill on the floor and let Taiwanese see what can actually be done to defend the nation.
John Cheng is a retired businessman from Hong Kong now living in Taiwan.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
For Taiwan, the ongoing US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets are a warning signal: When a major power stretches the boundaries of self-defense, smaller states feel the tremors first. Taiwan’s security rests on two pillars: US deterrence and the credibility of international law. The first deters coercion from China. The second legitimizes Taiwan’s place in the international community. One is material. The other is moral. Both are indispensable. Under the UN Charter, force is lawful only in response to an armed attack or with UN Security Council authorization. Even pre-emptive self-defense — long debated — requires a demonstrably imminent
Since being re-elected, US President Donald Trump has consistently taken concrete action to counter China and to safeguard the interests of the US and other democratic nations. The attacks on Iran, the earlier capture of deposed of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and efforts to remove Chinese influence from the Panama Canal all demonstrate that, as tensions with Beijing intensify, Washington has adopted a hardline stance aimed at weakening its power. Iran and Venezuela are important allies and major oil suppliers of China, and the US has effectively decapitated both. The US has continuously strengthened its military presence in the Philippines. Japanese Prime
RSS