Are the Kuomintang and the Taiwan People’s Party only accidentally obeying the preferences of the Chinese Communist Party when they wrangle over funding for military drones?
Was any KMT or TPP legislator instructed by the CCP to adopt any of the opposition’s current delaying tactics?
According to the Taipei Times (July 17, 2026):
China is orchestrating a campaign to derail Taiwan’s efforts to develop military drones through politicians in opposition parties, a source with knowledge of cross-strait affairs said yesterday, claims that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) called “false and malicious.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’s Chinese-language sister paper) that Chinese officials and their intermediaries in May and last month gave detailed instructions to opposition politicians to derail Taiwan’s efforts to develop uncrewed systems….
Last month, a pro-Beijing businessperson representing the Chinese government told a Taiwanese politician that the opposition must counter the Executive Yuan’s proposed special budget for uncrewed systems [drones] through a three-pronged strategy, the source said.
China emphasized that the opposition should redirect the budget to civilian applications of drone technology and criticize any investments into combat capabilities as militarism, the source said.
The businessperson called on the opposition to stall for time, as Beijing did not want complications should US President Donald Trump make a second state visit to Beijing in September or October, they said.
Beijing especially requested the opposition hinder the Cabinet’s ambitions of building a non-Chinese supply chain by giving Chinese entities access to the Taiwanese drone sector, they said.
KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang called the report “utterly false and malicious.”
Might be true. Might be untrue. It’s the difference between words and winks.
The present leader of the Kuomintang, Cheng Li-wun, went to Beijing a few months ago and all but said that she’d do her best to deliver Taiwan. Yet we’re not hearing that the KMT rank and file have demanded her resignation.
“Rejuvenation”
Xi at an April 2026 press conference:
“Compatriots…. We are willing, on the common political foundation of upholding the 1992 Consensus and opposing Taiwan independence, to strengthen exchanges and dialogue with all political parties including the Chinese Kuomintang, groups, and people from all sectors in Taiwan society to work for peace across the Strait, for the well-being of our compatriots, and for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and to keep the future of cross-Strait relations firmly in the hands of the Chinese people ourselves….
“Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all members of the Chinese nation…. Despite the vicissitudes of history, Taiwan compatriots have never forgotten that their roots are on the mainland, that their hearts are with the motherland, and that their souls belong to the Chinese nation.”
Cheng at the same press conference, speaking after Xi, not disagreeing with a single implication:
“There is no denying that, over more than a century of interaction, the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party has seen many twists and turns. Yet what we have both pursued, throughout, has always been to lead the Chinese nation from decline to rejuvenation…. The ‘great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’ must be a shared rejuvenation for people on both sides of the Strait.”
In 2022, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, echoing many statements by Xi, stated: “Only by realizing complete national reunification can the Chinese people on both sides of the Straits cast aside the shadow of civil war and create and enjoy lasting peace…. It is the most effective remedy to secessionist attempts to divide our country, and the best means to consolidate Taiwan’s status as part of China and advance national rejuvenation.”
If China attacks
So Cheng knows, has to know, cannot not know, that “re-”unifying with Taiwan is part of the PRC’s rejuvenation agenda.
The lawmakers on the anti-drone side of the aisle must also know that if the People’s Liberation Army ever invades Taiwan in order to help the rejuvenation along, it would prefer that the Republic of China have few or no working drones on hand.
