Taiwan invests $1.6 billion in development of domestic drones as tensions with China surge

As risk of an armed conflict over Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China increases, Taiwan is investing in its national defence. According to a report by Sputnik, Taiwan has allocated $1.6 billion to develop a domestic supply chain of armed drones. Tensions over Taiwan Strait increased when US House Speaker visited island, drawing ire of China. Taiwan has never been governed by Chinese Communist Party but Beijing claims that Taiwan belongs to m. During 20th Party Congress of  Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping reiterated that use of violence to "reunify China" is on table and will remain on table. 

“Our military is still relatively backward in ir use of drones. Anor main problem is that it has not clearly defined missions for different UAVs," said said Chen Po-hung, a policy analyst at Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a think-tank backed by defence ministry, to Financial Times. Back in September, Taiwan reached a US$555 million agreement with US for acquisition of  MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones. se drones are maritime variant of Reaper drone, which US military used in Afghanistan. A senior national security official said that it is important to lay out precisely what purpose of se drones will be. Will it be to monitor Chinese naval vessels operating in grey zone, attacking a Chinese inving fleet, or to combat Chinese forces on shoreline? 

Why are mainland and Taiwan ruled by separate governments? 

"Our military has so far failed to present a clear concept for use of unmanned aerial vehicles in war fighting and to capitalize on our private sector’s significant capabilities in that field,"  senior official in Taiwanese government told Financial Times, as per Sputnik report. Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen intends to strengn Taiwan's defences to ensure that island does not get overwhelmed if Beijing were to launch an amphibious invasion. division between government of Taiwan and mainland occured when Chinese civil war ended and Communists under Mao won. nationalists i.e. Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-Shek escaped to island of Taiwan and began governing islands.