Leaked military war games revealed Taiwan’s $6.55 billion drone program could strip Beijing of its dominance in the Taiwan Strait.
Now, the Chinese Communist Party is using covert channels to sabotage the bill from the inside.
Reports from Taiwan’s major daily newspaper, Liberty Times, reveal that the United Front Work Department, the CCP’s political influence agency, is targeting friendly political circles in Taipei to stall the legislation.
The stakes could not be higher. Taiwan’s executive cabinet, the Executive Yuan, planned the NT$210 billion ($6.55 billion) proposal to field over 208,000 attack drones and 1,300 uncrewed attack vessels by 2031. Coordinated with US defense strategy, it aims to build a self-reliant supply chain that makes an invasion virtually impossible.
China’s military command center, the PLA Joint Staff Department, warned top leadership that these asymmetric systems threaten their strategic edge. Their tactic now is forcing lawmakers to scrap the multi-year package in favor of annual budget reviews, dragging out debates to buy time for countermeasures.
Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang, dismissed the report as a baseless smear, arguing they simply favor strict annual fiscal oversight. Meanwhile, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party warns that stalling this program directly plays into Beijing’s hands.