{"id":1293,"date":"2026-06-29T21:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/1293\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:46:18","slug":"why-is-taiwans-kmt-calling-for-the-government-to-spend-billions-more-on-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/1293\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Taiwan\u2019s KMT calling for the government to spend billions more on drones?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After rejecting a government spending package, Taiwan\u2019s opposition Kuomintang<\/a> (KMT) has submitted its own proposal worth several billion dollars more to boost the military\u2019s unmanned vehicle capabilities and the island\u2019s broader drone<\/a> sector.<\/p>\n

The move reflects growing consensus across Taiwan\u2019s political spectrum that unmanned systems will be central to the island\u2019s defence in the future.<\/p>\n

Defending its decision to reject the government\u2019s proposal for the sector, KMT officials on Monday said the party disagreed with the cabinet over how the programme should be funded, managed and integrated with broader industrial policy.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s lawmakers said their budget \u2013 which was submitted to the legislature on Monday \u2013 would allocate up to NT$240 billion (US$7.5 billion) over six years through the regular annual budget, compared with the cabinet\u2019s proposal for a NT$210 billion special budget unveiled on Friday.<\/p>\n

The KMT has long opposed<\/a> funding defence programmes through special budgets, which are subject to less legislative scrutiny and avoid spending caps.<\/p>\n

Unlike the government\u2019s bill, which specifies procurement targets for various drone types, the KMT version would leave procurement decisions up to the defence ministry while requiring lawmakers to be notified of any individual drone purchase exceeding NT$100 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After rejecting a government spending package, Taiwan\u2019s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) has submitted its own proposal worth several billion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[867,864,858,407,857,14,859,862,866,863,861,860,865,25,520,856],"class_list":["post-1293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-beijing","tag-chen-i-hsin","tag-chen-kuan-ting","tag-china","tag-chuang-jui-hsiung","tag-defence-industry","tag-democratic-progressive-party","tag-dpp","tag-kmt","tag-kuomintang","tag-lai-shyh-bao","tag-lo-ting-wei","tag-lu-shiow-yen","tag-taiwan","tag-united-states","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}