By Brian Freeman | Wednesday, 24 December 2025 11:39 AM EST
U.S.-Taiwan Business Council President Rupert Hammond-Chambers warned that the state of U.S. military aid to Taiwan has become increasingly imbalanced, according to a report from a Hudson Institute think tank event earlier this month.
Although the United States has sent an increasing number of asymmetric weapons systems intended to deter and repel potential Chinese invasions, Hammond-Chambers argued that Taiwan requires a more balanced arsenal to counter scenarios such as sustained blockades.
He stated that U.S. arms sales have “swung from one extreme” — historical focus on advanced platforms like MQ-9 Reaper drones, M1A2 Abrams tanks, and F-16 Fighting Falcon jets — “to the other extreme where we’re only doing asymmetric,” a shift he warned leaves critical vulnerabilities.
U.S. officials claim that survivable, distributed, and networked systems are better suited to help Taiwan counter China’s daily gray-zone pressure while complicating Beijing’s strategic designs in crises or blockades.
Taiwan has been concentrating on building its asymmetric capabilities to deter full-scale invasion, Hammond-Chambers said. However, he noted military support has not kept pace with evolving threats and called for a “swing back” toward greater balance.
The Taiwan Defense Ministry stated the U.S. continues to assist in maintaining sufficient self-defense capabilities and rapidly developing strong deterrent power through asymmetric warfare advantages.
One of the most complicated challenges facing Taiwan is developing its own weapons systems should blockades prevent external assistance from allies like the United States. Retired Admiral Lee Hsi-Min, former chief of the general staff for Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, suggested at the event that producing weapons on the island rather than relying on co-production or foreign supply would be essential.
Experts and officials have long stressed the need for a stronger local defense supply chain to ensure operational readiness during disruptions. Betsy Shieh, former senior commercial officer with the U.S. Department of Commerce, added that licensing American, Ukrainian, and European designs to produce on Taiwan could enable faster scale-up.
“Taiwanian companies will learn to innovate as that goes on,” Shieh said at the event, “but the short term is license, license, license, build on island.”
