The chairman of a U.S. House committee focused on strategic competition with China urged Taiwan’s main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party, or KMT, on Tuesday to follow through on funding for critical defense capabilities, after meeting a delegation of Taiwanese lawmakers in Washington.
Representative John Moolenaar, the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, met the Taiwanese delegation on Capitol Hill to discuss mutual priorities, including countering security threats from Beijing, his office said.
The delegation was led by Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) and included fellow lawmakers Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷), Huang Chien-hao (黃健豪), Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋), Liao Wei-hsiang (廖偉翔), Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽) and Ko Ju-chun (葛如鈞), according to the KMT.
In the statement delivered via his office, Moolenaar welcomed the recent passage of an opposition-backed plan intended to expand Taiwan’s unmanned systems capabilities, but said political disputes and delays over higher defense spending had raised concerns among Taiwan’s partners.
“It will be essential for the KMT to follow through and provide the resources needed to deliver on Taiwan’s plans to build critical defense capabilities,” he said.
Taiwan’s opposition-controlled legislature in August rejected a government proposal for a 210 billion New Taiwan dollar ($6.6 billion) special budget to purchase military drones, passing its own proposal instead. The opposition’s plan proposed NTD 240 billion over six years, funded through the annual budget, with annual spending set at NTD 40 billion in principle.
Moolenaar said the KMT-proposed budget would increase support for critical drone capabilities, but added that the party needed to ensure resources were delivered in line with Taiwan’s plans to build up its defense.
Taiwan’s government has made drones a core part of its effort to develop more survivable, asymmetric defenses against a possible Chinese attack. The cabinet this month proposed an additional NTD 145.7 billion ($4.6 billion) in defense spending, including NTD 55.9 billion for uncrewed systems such as more than 40,000 coastal attack drones, more than 600 surveillance and reconnaissance drones and over 100 small suicide drone boats.
Moolenaar said the Chinese Communist Party, which has never ruled Taiwan, had increased its harassment of the island nation in recent months through cyberattacks, incursions and military exercises.
He said he had met representatives of Taiwan’s leading political parties and that they shared the view that strengthening Taiwan’s defenses was urgent.
Update: A party official from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, or the DPP, shared the following statement with Domino Theory after publication: “We thank Chairman Moolenaar for his continued attention to Taiwan’s defense preparedness, and welcome his call for the KMT to follow through on its commitments. We hope the KMT will demonstrate consistency between its words and actions, rather than saying one thing in Washington and doing another in Taiwan.”
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