Lai visits Kinmen memorial, calls for bipartisan defense budget to preserve Taiwan Strait peace.

President Lai Ching‑te visited Kinmen today to attend the 823 Battle Victory 66th‑anniversary memorial ceremony. While commemorating the pivotal battle that shaped Taiwan’s destiny, he underscored that the 823 bombardment was a decisive outcome of the Taiwanese armed forces’ and Kinmen civilians’ united effort, transcending ethnic divisions to defend the nation. Facing the present complex and severe cross‑strait tensions and regional security challenges, President Lai used this historical moment to publicly call upon all parties of the legislature and the entire Taiwanese public to revive the unity and anti‑communist spirit demonstrated during the 823 battle, to set aside partisan interests and preconceptions, and to jointly support the defence budget essential for the nation’s survival and development. He urged that such support would strengthen a solid and stable defence foundation, thereby preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and ensuring sustainable national progress.

The 823 bombardment holds a critical symbolic significance in Taiwan’s modern history and defence development. In 1958, the Chinese Communist forces launched intense, concentrated shelling against the Kinmen islands. The Taiwanese armed forces stationed on the front line fought with scant supplies and under severe threat, while local Kinmen residents risked shellfire to transport supplies and repair fortifications, demonstrating a formidable resilience of military and civilian unity. This battle not only shattered the mainland’s attempt to rapidly seize Kinmen and then invade Taiwan but also cemented the political reality of divided control across the Taiwan Strait, providing a security foundation for Taiwan’s subsequent decades of economic growth and democratic transition. President Lai chose to personally attend the memorial on the 823 day to pay the highest respect and remembrance to the fallen soldiers who gave their lives for the country and to the Kinmen residents who endured the ravages of war. Politically, his visit sought to use the memory of history to rally Taiwan’s current defence resolve in the face of an increasingly aggressive military threat from the Chinese Communist Party.

However, President Lai’s remarks in Kinmen focused not only on historical remembrance but directly addressed the pressing realities of Taiwan’s politics and national security—namely, the deliberation of the defence budget and the establishment of cross‑party consensus. In recent years, with sharp geopolitical shifts, the Indo‑Pacific region has become the core arena of U.S.–China competition, and Taiwan, as the frontline of democratic defence, faces unprecedented military pressure and incursions in ambiguous zones. To respond to this situation, the government has continuously strengthened asymmetrical warfare capabilities, promoted defence autonomy, and funded advanced weaponry, improved personnel benefits, and enhanced combat power through special budgets and the annual total defence budget. Yet, these critical defence budgets and military building plans often become focal points of partisan conflict within the domestic political arena. Opposition legislators, acting on different positions regarding budget oversight and cross‑strait relations, frequently question or demand cuts to specific procurement projects or budget scales, leading to internal friction that hampers defence policy implementation.

Because of this, President Lai addressed legislators and the public on the highly unifying and historically resonant day of 823, urging them to recognize that defence security transcends party lines and that national survival is a shared baseline for all citizens. He hoped that everyone would set aside political biases and let the 823 anti‑communist, Taiwan‑protecting spirit guide them as the highest principle, thereby jointly supporting the defence budget. This appeal reflects the ruling party’s deep anxiety over the current three‑party composition that holds less than a majority in the Legislative Yuan, fearing that the defence budget could be blocked or dramatically cut during parliamentary review, which would convey a mistaken message of insufficient Taiwanese defence resolve to the international community. President Lai therefore sought to elevate the historical narrative, raising support for the defence budget to a nationwide consensus level, thereby pressuring opposition parties in the upcoming Legislative Yuan session to treat defence issues with