Mon, Jul 21, 2025 page2

• White House office recommends US$1 billion for Taiwan defense budget

  • By Hollie Younger / Staff writer
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  The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) “strongly urges full consideration” of a US$1 billion budget request for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative (TSCI), it said in a statement on Friday.

  The OMB, under the Executive Office of the President of the US, appreciates the US$500 million allocated by the US House of Representatives to the TSCI on Friday as “critical to enabling the Department of Defense (DOD)’s efforts to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities,” the report said.

  However, it added that a US$1 billion budget would enhance “Taiwan’s ability to credibly defend itself is vital for deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and [be] important for safeguarding [US] personnel in the event of a contingency.”

  

  The US and Taiwan flags are pictured in an undated photograph.

  Photo: Bloomberg

  The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY 2026), including US$500 million for Taiwan’s TSCI, to be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and available through Sept. 30, 2027.

  The recommendation is US$100 million more than the appropriation for FY 2025.

  The legislation authorizes the US secretary of defense, with the agreement of the US secretary of state, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training.

  Friday’s bill is not final; under US law, the bill must pass the US Senate in the same form before it can be sent to the US president for signing.

  The Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet released its version of the defense spending bill.

  The OMB’s “Statement of Administration Policy,” addressed to the US Congress, provided the US House’s additional views regarding the House Appropriations Committee’s version of the FY 2026 budget bill.

  In February, US President Donald Trump’s administration demonstrated further support for Taiwan, releasing US$5.3 billion in frozen foreign aid funds that included NT$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan.

  The FY 2026 budget allocation for Taiwan considered a report released in May by retired US Navy rear admiral and former director of operations at US Pacific Command Mark Montgomery, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said.

  The report, titled “Deterrence Amid Rising Tensions: Preventing CCP Aggression on Taiwan,” said that “Congress should appropriate [US]$1 billion for TSCI in FY 2026 and beyond.”

  The funds would be used for “training and education of Taiwan’s warfighters to include maximum attendance at captain’s courses in all warfighting areas and paying for off-island battalion-level training at [US] facilities in Hawaii and the West Coast,” Montgomery said.

  Montgomery added that military assistance to Taiwan could be maximized through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF), Presidential Drawdown Authorities (PDA) and the TSCI.

  “Taiwan is too small to handle the China challenge alone,” he said, adding that China’s GDP is 23 times greater than that of Taiwan.

  The report said that “America’s ability to deter the [Chinese Communist Party (CCP)] is withering, and thus, the risk of conflict is growing,” adding that the US and Taiwan must prepare for a cross-strait invasion, a full-scale air and maritime blockade and, the most likely scenario, a “comprehensive, cyber-enabled economic warfare campaign.”

  “If the Indo-Pacific is the priority theater, Taiwan should be ‘first in line,’” Montgomery said, adding that the US must prioritize Taiwan within the FMS, though “today, this is not the case,” noting a US$21 billion backlog of weapons intended for Taiwan but not yet delivered.

  In other related news, the US House also passed a bill on Friday that prevents the DOD from using maps which depict Taiwan as a part of China’s territory, an expansion of previous amendments relating to the Pentagon.

  The amendment “prohibits the expenditure of funds to create, procure or display any map that depicts Taiwan as part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).”

  The “honest maps amendment” was proposed by Republican US Representative Tom Tiffany, who said on the US House floor on Thursday, “This is not a controversial amendment. Since all of us know that Taiwan is not, nor has it ever been, part of communist China, even for a single day.”

  “By every measure, Taiwan is a sovereign, democratic and independent nation. Any claims to the contrary are simply false,” Tiffany added, “China is China. Taiwan is Taiwan.”

  Additional reporting from CNA
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