On April 20, 2026, Intelligence Online reported that the defense budget of the Republic of China was hanging in the balance as a “tense closed-door meeting looms.”
The publication expected tension because many members of the ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party, seek to defend the country from China as strongly as possible; whereas many members of the main opposition party, the Kuomintang, which in its coalition with the Taiwan People’s Pary constitute a legislative majority, seek to defend the country from China only somewhat.
If that. The public comments delivered by KMT Chair Cheng Li-wun before, during, and after her meeting with China dictator Xi Jinping suggest a determination to echo and submit to the Chinese Communist Party rather than to oppose its constant aggression.
Chickens and eggs
The point of the inter-party meeting would have been to “attempt to reach a compromise on a defence budget deemed crucial and demanded by Washington ahead of Donald Trump’s visit to China.”
The rest of Intelligence Online’s article is behind a paywall. If the projected meeting did take place—that the KMT people keep skipping defense-budget meetings is one of the complaints of the DPP people—it did not accomplish anything. The pro-strong-defense and anti-strong-defense factions are still locked in mortal combat.
U.S. military men want the ROC to get its act together.
Reuters: “The head of the U.S. command for the Indo-Pacific region on Tuesday stressed the importance of Taiwan passing its stalled defense budget, saying the United States ‘can’t want Taiwan’s defense more than they want it itself. It’s not a chicken and the egg, because you’re not going to get chicken or eggs if you starve the chicken,’ Admiral Samuel Paparo told a hearing of the Senate Committee on Armed Services” (April 21, 2026).
Correct: dead chickens lay no eggs. Thank you, admiral. But there is no government-wide “they” in Taipei who are reluctant to pass a military budget which, after all, somebody in the government put together. “So it’s very important for them to fund their own defense,” Paparo says. Yes…yes it is. Aim the criticism at the Taiwanese lawmakers who don’t seem to recognize this.
Eswatini
A Democratic congressional aide tells Reuters: “We did secure private assurances from KMT leadership that a robust defense package would eventually be approved.”
Great. Reuters, though, adds: “In Taipei, ruling party lawmakers have expressed anger at the KMT for skipping defense budget talks and at its leader Cheng Li-wun for visiting China, where she made a plea for peace, saying birds not missiles should fly in the skies.” Sounds more like full-scale resistance than pausing to iron out a few budget details.
Meanwhile, the President of the Republic of China, Lai Ching-te, had to cancel a trip to Eswatini, one of the 12 countries that diplomatically recognizes the ROC, at the last minute “after several countries in Africa revoked overflight permits following ‘intense pressure’ from China….”
Cheng Li-wun, ever helpful, blamed President Lai for a “diplomatic defeat.” Perhaps the idea is that if Lai had never planned to visit Eswatini or would simply agree to surrender Taiwan to the mainland, this kind of thing would not happen. Something is for the birds here.
Also see:
Taipei Times: “Taiwan signs arms deals with US totaling US$6.58bn“
”Taiwan has signed six arms procurement offers from the US totaling more than NT$208 billion (US$6.59 billion) covering long-range precision strike systems, missile stockpile replenishment and joint production of large-caliber ammunition, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
”The government’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion special defense budget has been stalled in the Legislative Yuan as opposition lawmakers question the amount and procurement items, while the Presidential Office and defense ministry say that the full amount is necessary to safeguard Taiwan.”
