The head of the U.S. command for the Indo-Pacific region on Tuesday stressed the importance of Taiwan passing its stalled defense budget, saying the United States \u201ccan\u2019t want Taiwan\u2019s defense more than they want it itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a chicken and the egg, because you\u2019re not going to get chicken or eggs if you starve the chicken,\u201d Adm. Samuel Paparo told a hearing of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s very important for them to fund their own defense,\u201d he said, when asked about the stalled talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taiwan\u2019s President Lai Ching-te last year proposed $40 billion in extra defense spending to counter China, which views the island as its own territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taiwan\u2019s parliament, where the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party has a majority, is continuing to debate the government\u2019s plan and competing, less expensive proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Washington is obliged under U.S. law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, and American senators have sought to reassure Taiwan that the U.S. will approve another round of arms sales worth as much as $14 billion soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A group of 37 bipartisan U.S. lawmakers wrote to senior Taiwanese politicians in February expressing concern about the parliament stalling defense spending plans and a separate group of U.S. lawmakers gave a similar message during a subsequent visit to Taipei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe did secure private assurances from KMT leadership that a robust defense package would eventually be approved,\u201d a Democratic congressional aide who had recently traveled to Taiwan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The KMT says it supports defense spending, but will not sign \u201cblank checks\u201d and that dialogue with Beijing is equally important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Taipei, ruling party lawmakers have expressed anger at the KMT for skipping defense budget talks and for its leader Cheng Li-wun visiting China, where she made a plea for peace, saying birds not missiles should fly in the skies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Adm. Samuel Paparo stressed the importance of Taiwan passing its stalled defense budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":111724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":45,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[45,160,11,16,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[7419],"class_list":["post-48985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-naval","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"N2NPMGW3PZDK7DCI6WZXATCKP4","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2026\/04\/21\/us-commander-warns-taiwan-not-to-starve-the-chicken-on-defense\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n