About NT$900bn to go to foreign arms, official saysACCUSATIONS: The official refuted insinuations that the special budget was a ‘blank check,’ citing examples where ceilings were approved before items were consideredBy Chen Yu-fu and Jason Pan / Staff reporters, with CNAMost of the NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.57 billion) special defense budget is for arms procurement from other countries, while NT$300 billion would go toward domestic defense production, Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) said yesterday. Hsu was responding to a comment by Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) on Wednesday that only NT$300 billion of the budget is for arms procurement from the US. Huang, who returned from a visit to the US on Wednesday, said he made the discovery after meeting unnamed officials in Washington. Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien, second right, speaks to reporters at a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei yesterday. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) reiterated that it welcomes the NT$1.25 billion special defense budget, as AIT Director Raymond Greene wrote on social media on Nov. 26 last year.

Source: Taipei Times January 15, 2026 17:12 UTC