Taiwan’s Defense Minister: The U.S. Congress has bipartisan support for Taiwan’s strengthening of its defense capabilities

When asked about arms sales to Taiwan after the U.S. midterm elections on Thursday, Taiwan's Defense Minister Ku Li-hsiung said, "The cross-party support in the U.S. Congress has always been to support Taiwan in strengthening its defense capabilities. We will continue to communicate with these members of Congress and maintain close contact with the U.S. Department of War to ensure that our relevant arms sales can proceed as planned."

Although the United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the United States remains Taiwan's most important international supporter and arms supplier.

In December last year, U.S. President Trump approved the largest arms sales to Taiwan in history, totaling US$11 billion, but another arms sales plan worth about US$14 billion is currently on hold. Since the beginning of this year, Trump has been delaying this approximately US$14 billion arms sales plan to Taiwan. After meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May, Trump said he would shelve the arms sale, calling it a good "negotiating bargaining chip."

China has always regarded the Taiwan issue as its most sensitive and important diplomatic issue, and has repeatedly requested a halt to arms sales to Taiwan. Taiwan's democratically elected government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, stressing that only the Taiwanese people can determine their own future.

Arms sales package could be delayed until 2027?

Chen Fangyu, associate professor at Soochow University in Taipei, said that there is a high degree of consensus between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in the United States on the Taiwan issue.

He added: "Secretary Rubio and his team remain core figures, and their overall strategy for the Indo-Pacific region, Asia and the global situation is unlikely to undergo major changes."

In September this year, before Xi Jinping visited Washington, the capital of the United States, four Republicans urged the Trump administration to release more than $15 billion in previously shelved national security assistance to Taiwan, including a $14 billion arms sales package.

Trump and Xi are expected to meet at least two more times before the end of this year - at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in China this month and at the G20 summit in Florida in December.

On October 20, 2026, Randall G. Schriver, current chairman of the "U.S. Indo-Pacific Security Institute" and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs of the U.S. Department of Defense, attended an academic seminar organized by the Mainland Affairs Council, the National Defense Academy and other institutions in Taipei. He said that since Trump and Xi Jinping will meet at the end of this year, it is expected that the relevant major arms sales may not see substantial progress until 2027.

Ronan Fu, an assistant researcher at Academia Sinica, Taiwan's top academic research institution, pointed out that when arms sales resume (perhaps next year), they may be split into several independent parts. "But if you add it all up, I think the total amount will remain roughly the same," he added.