Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, including airspace and naval encirclement, has been ramping up, and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been rapidly enhancing its uncrewed and intelligent combat capabilities. Against this backdrop, chaos reigns in Taiwan’s legislature over the review of defense budgets.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), convener of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, has proposed repeated cuts and freezes to the defense budget. Most absurd among them is the proposed NT$50 million (US$1.58 million) cut and a NT$10 million freeze to the navy’s annual budget for procuring training targets this year.
The original budget sits at only NT$32.8 million, so the KMT is proposing to slash spending into the negative numbers. This is not a simple numerical misstep, but an example of exactly the kind of flippant and hostile attitude toward national defense that makes one wonder whether the goal is to exercise actual oversight or to deliberately weaken Taiwan’s defensive capabilities.
Even more noteworthy is that the items targeted for significant cuts and freezes are core components of the military’s daily training, battlefield survival and combat effectiveness.
Naval targets are essential equipment for simulating low-altitude threats and submarine attacks; air force fire trucks are critical for rescue operations after airbases are attacked; army positioning and orientation systems are vital for accurate artillery fire and troop navigation; high-altitude airborne drop simulators are crucial training facilities for special warfare teams operating behind enemy lines.
Delaying these projects does not just mean administrative efficiency takes a hit; it has direct implications for military preparedness and the safety of our service members.
Nevertheless, Ma and others have long launched comprehensive attacks on defense projects, alleging they waste public funds, and claiming it is “unclear” if they are required. In a healthy democracy, parliamentary oversight should involve calls for clarification, transparency and improvement — not just the reflexive freezing or wholesale deletion of funds. These cuts highlight a lack of professionalism in review and of practical understanding.
They treat the defense budget not as a lifeline of national security, but as a tool for political maneuvering. While the military works tirelessly to respond to the Chinese Communist Party’s military expansion, politicians are busy undercutting them from inside the Legislative Yuan. This is not reasonable oversight, but the undermining of national security.
The PLA has steadily increased its military spending in recent years and explicitly listed Taiwan as a primary target. At the same time, democratic nations around the world have been ramping up defensive spending and seeking to buttress their own resilience. Japan has increased its defense budget, Europe is remilitarizing and the US continues to emphasize the importance of security in the Indo-Pacific. It seems that it is only within Taiwan that ideological motives and political calculations are driving politicians to throttle their own military’s preparedness.
The greatest irony here lies in the fact that these groups and individuals who tout their own support for the military and its troops are the ones launching attacks on their training, provisions and logistics in the form of budget reviews.
They speak of peace, but their actions strip Taiwan of its deterrence capabilities.
History would not easily forgive those who, in the face of a crisis, move to undermine their nation’s ability to defend itself.
Elliot Yao is a reviewer.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
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