How the Chinese KMT systemically weakens Taiwan

[Luby Liao]

I strongly recommend that all Americans and Taiwanese read Michael Turton’s March 16 article, included below, to better understand how the Chinese KMT schemes to undermine our strongly connected national interests.

As I noted in https://groups.google.com/g/i_love_taiwan/c/M_a5uMnJYE8/m/y3FI2sK6AgAJ, the Chinese KMT works to weaken Taiwan’s defense. Turton shows how it is done.

Turton suggests that the US take serious, meaningful action against the Chinese KMT.

Michael Turton: The defense budget Taiwan needs — and the one the KMT killed

Taiwan has the technology to build a devastating asymmetric defense against a Chinese invasion — but the KMT’s proposed budget removes the very programs designed to make it possible

• By Michael Turton / Contributing reporter
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Last week the government announced that by year’s end Taiwan will have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world. Its inventory could exceed 1,400, or enough for the opening two hours of an invasion from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Snark aside, it sounds impressive. But an important piece is missing.

Lost in all the “dialogues” and “debates” and “discussions” whose sole purpose is simply to dawdle and delay is what the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) alternative special defense budget proposal means for the defense of Taiwan. It is a betrayal of both Taiwan and the US.

IT’S THE MINES, STUPID

Graphic: TT

Wen Lang-tung (溫朗東), a political commentator who writes at Fount Media, published a long piece last week explaining why the KMT’s proposed budget is so wrong.

In its opening attacks on Iran, the US destroyed Iran’s navy and air force. However, Iran still has powerful asymmetric capabilities, among them small fast boats that drop 2-3 mines each in the Strait of Hormuz. These mines have shut the Strait down, and the US lacks a counter to them. Kill a few, and many remain, with many possible launching points, Wen writes.

Ukraine has similarly pioneered the use of small unmanned craft to destroy ships. With that technology in mind, unmanned mine-laying drones have been developed. They can be pre-positioned, Wen writes, operate despite GPS and communications jamming, and navigate autonomously.

A soldier launches an attack drone during exercises last month

Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

American defense authorities last year spoke of turning the Taiwan Strait into a “Hellscape” in the event of a PRC invasion. Wen writes that last month the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) released a set of recommendations for creating that Hellscape in the Strait. The report recommended that Taiwan deploy drones to mine the sea. Once mines are in the water, ships can be channeled into areas where missiles can sink them.

We have the missiles, as noted at the outset of this column. And we could have the drones. Wen says Taiwan’s Jong Shyn Shipbuilding Group (中信造船) has already constructed a prototype drone that can engage in mine-sweeping, mine-laying and suicide attacks. National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) has plans for mass production starting this year, with a budget of NT$18 billion for 1,320 vessels.

WHERE IS THE BUDGET, KMT?

“The technology is ready. The concept is ready. America’s top defense think tank published the playbook. All Taiwan needs is the budget,” Wen says.

The budget? The KMT has blocked the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) special budget proposal that would have funded this. The KMT’s own budget proposal, 70 percent smaller, mandates purchase of existing US weapons systems, and defunds the undersea drone program.

Track that. When the invasion begins, because Taiwan’s unmanned vessels are in place, ready to go, sophisticated US technology can handle their control, meaning that (according to CNAS) Taiwan can be defended without committing US military units. Instead, it relies on Taiwan creating a robust inventory of asymmetric firepower systems. To that end, NCSIST has also allocated NT$28 billion for undersea suicide drones. In June last year it held a competition for such drones, attended by officials from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the officially-unofficial representative office of the US.

Moreover, as a Storm media piece on the drones pointed out, small unmanned vessels offer greater returns for local shipyards than conventional warships or submarines. This implies they would be more willing to construct them. I might add that they have a variety of peacetime applications, from oceanic survey work to supplying Taiwan’s islands. Further, Taiwan’s shipyards would find a ready market abroad for such vessels.

The DPP budget provides the funding to sustain production of the weapons and technologies to support the Hellscape concept and its associated weapons systems. The KMT has gutted that in its smaller package.

FALLING SHORT ON HELLSCAPE

The only real beneficiary of the KMT’s smaller budget is PRC war planners. If the KMT budget passes, they will not have to face the asymmetric weapons of the type the US is facing against Iran. It be should noted that the Iran war is not only providing an avalanche of intel on US military practices, it is also showing the PRC how a great power should go about subduing a middle power which has top-notch engineers and significant asymmetric capabilities.

The KMT proposal is for a package totaling US$11.1 billion, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Javelin missiles, Altius-700M and Altius-600 drones, TOW missiles, M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, C5ISR systems, Harpoon missile follow-on support and helicopter parts. These are necessary, but not the core of the Hellscape system as envisioned by CNAS.

What is the KMT’s offer to buy weapons systems from the US? A cynical reading of US venality. It is a bribe disguised as an arms package, saying in effect: we’ll buy your weapons if you pretend you can’t see what we offer is a hollow fraud.

Later, when the PRC invades, more Americans will be killed as a result of this budget, if it is adopted. More Taiwanese too. No doubt that is a sacrifice the KMT is willing to make.

The KMT’s slashing of defense budgets is complemented by its delaying tactics in the legislature. As the DPP put it in its international newsletter: “In effect, the KMT is filibustering Taiwan’s defense.”

The defense committee’s agenda, the DPP says, is filled with political spectacle.

For example, the recent KMT noises about Premier Cho Jung-tai’s (卓榮泰) trip to Japan are part of that circus of distraction. Another set of distractions are the constantly mutating proposals of various individual legislators, as well as added conditions, such as demanding new Letters of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) from the US for the weapons systems before the KMT will fund new weapons. If that condition is accepted, a new one will appear.

Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) left on a tour of US east coast cities last week. She has positioned herself as a moderate on defense, recently saying she was concerned that the KMT’s obstruction of the defense budget could affect US-Taiwan relations.

There may be quiet meetings with US officials, who may ask her pointed questions about the KMT’s defense budget stance. She will probably express regret and dismay at the behavior of her colleagues. Her job is to sow division and delay, to be the moderate face of what appears to be a PRC-aligned insurgency.

Some voices have been calling for more US dialogue with the KMT. The truth is the US has been shouting at the KMT for months now. The party is well aware of the US position and obviously, well aware of what it is doing. There is no point in further dialogue, since it merely hands the KMT another opportunity to delay and divide.

It is long past time for the US to take serious, meaningful action against the KMT.

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[Luby Liao]

Taiwan's most important, influential, and best-selling newspaper says that the Chinese KMT is posturing and obstructing.  Shouldn't the US take note?

自由時報社論: 嘴喊支持 軍購就是這樣玩的

2026/05/08 05:30

行政院自去年十一月提出八年一‧二五兆元國防特別條例草案後，國會審議拖了大半年，已開國人眼界。國民黨團與民眾黨團先是拒絕審查，在程序委員會排案階段即加以封殺，直至無法完全阻擋，才調整策略，各自提出三八〇〇億元與四〇〇〇億元版本。表面上，朝野版本併案審理，立法院長還四度主持協商，符合民主程序。實際上，過程乏於進度，在野反覆陳述，多為舊說重提，有如倒帶放送。之前國民黨還出現「軍購之亂」戲碼：黨中央堅持三八〇〇億元版本，多數藍委主張八〇〇〇億元版本。外界看得很熱鬧，彷彿兩派拉鋸，但其實都是「縮水版」。在野宣稱支持軍購，然而推進極為緩慢，最後仍是原地踏步。白忙一場後，藍白兩黨很可能近期再挾國會席次優勢，輾壓通過難以執行的版本。政治戲法引人矚目，原來，這「不是反對，而是軍購就是這樣玩的」。

國民黨先前的「軍購之亂」，曾一度被認為有接近行政院版的可能，現在看來，似乎是互唱雙簧。兩週前，白營傳出，藍白兩黨對八〇〇〇億元版本已有共識。然而上週，國民黨主席鄭麗文在立院黨團大會前夕受訪時，強勢定調最糟糕的三八〇〇億元版本，隔日黨團因之未能形成新的共識，黨團自主形同虛設。此外，雖有趙少康等黨內重量級人士公開表達不同意見，但軍系出身的黨副主席語出驚人，點名韓國瑜不可「賣黨求榮」，黨考紀會主委亦強調捍衛黨版。鄭麗文更稱反對者僅屬少數。黨內不同聲音時有出現，但面對壓力，幾位被歸類親美派、青壯派或本土派的要角與立委，始終未凝聚具體主張與行動，反而更驗證鄭所謂「少數」的說法。即便傳出三八〇〇億元＋N，可以加總拉到八〇〇〇億元，但這只是玩弄文字遊戲，國民黨的三八〇〇億元版本始終沒變，所謂朝野協商，只為拉長時間，以利拖過「川習會」，幫助中國拿軍售議題當成美中談判籌碼。

更扯的是，軍購案不僅停滯，藍白又逐漸口徑一致，重回要求須先取得美方「發價書」後方可審議條例與預算，討論又重回原點。政府與媒體已多次申明，「發價書」並非「要價書」。唯有美方完成對台軍購項目的審查並決定供售後，才會發出發價書。換言之，在野強行將「收到發價書」設為審議軍購預算的前提條件，預示未來所有軍購款項都將延遲，甚至引發變數。然而，立法院一旦未於發價書期限內完審，恐得先同意國防部簽署，避免軍購案被取消。法律背景出身的國防部長顧立雄即指出其中矛盾處說：「若等到發價書來，等於立法院完全沒有審過條例、預算下雙方就先簽發價書，這反而是一種『空白授權』。」在野陣營明知軍購流程與制度運作卻仍刁難設限，形同實質杯葛。表面看來「軍購之亂」黨內角力，實際更像政治區隔的相互表演。黨內幾位要角藉軍購案政治表態，傳達與黨中央的紅統傾向有別。至於鄭的「力排眾議」，則被解讀是向「習中央」隔海交心。

在野陣營「玩軍購」並非首次。賴清德今年二月提及，二十一年前他擔任立委時，美國決定出售八艘潛艦等軍購案，但行政院預算案在立院程序委員會遭阻擋六十九次，最終流產。時任總統陳水扁今年亦曾說，當年小布希政府願意出售潛艦，卻遭國民黨與親民黨聯手杯葛。扁引述時任美國在台協會處長楊甦棣的話說，在野國會領袖對其表示：這「不是反對，而是政治就是這樣玩的！」如今同樣是民進黨政府執政，國會也面臨朝小野大的格局下，外界憂慮在野正以更戲劇性的障眼法手段，上演「不是反對，而是軍購就是這樣玩的！」的戲碼，嘴稱不反對，實際上把軍購案改得七零八落，還刪除攸關無人機、台灣之盾等商購、委製戰力的規劃，形同歷史重演。

過去我們已因國會阻撓，使得潛艦重大軍購計畫折戟，後續轉向國造潛艦亦歷經艱難。本次軍購案涵蓋範圍更廣，攸關不對稱戰力的快速提升，然而藍白陣營在這半年使出「玩軍購」，操作不斷。特別在國民黨內，不少人雖公開與黨中央唱反調，卻無實質整合與行動，有如虛晃一招。審議已至關鍵時刻，不僅國人關注，國際亦密切觀察。若國防特別條例最終僅通過遭嚴重削減的縮水版本，則這些曾高聲表態者，不過是一場政治表演，甚至與黨中央互演黑白嘴臉，歸根究柢，仍是說一套、做一套，掩護玩軍購、反軍購的真實目的。

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