Lai Ching-te
President of Taiwan since May 2024; Democratic Progressive Party politician and former physician.
Taiwan's president since May 2024, Lai Ching-te turned the island's drone budget into law on 11 September 2026: NT$240bn across six years for uncrewed systems, roughly NT$40bn a year, written into each annual defence budget.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Taiwan's drone law is passed; can NT$40bn a year survive budget fights?
Timeline for Lai Ching-te
Promulgated the unmanned-vehicles Act
Autonomous Systems: Land & Sea: Lai signs Taiwan's six-year drone lawBackground
Lai Ching-te, Taiwan's president, put the island's drone spending law into force. His signature on 11 September 2026 came 15 days after legislators approved the bill on 27 August, with the premier's countersignature already on it. Over six years the law earmarks NT$240bn for drones and other uncrewed systems, about NT$40bn annually. Its funding clause applied straight away, while the remaining provisions start around 11 March 2027. Legislators set that annual sum afresh in every defence budget, so they can still revise it.
Lai was Born on 6 October 1959 in Wanli, New Taipei, and trained as a physician before entering politics. He sat in the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2010, was mayor of Tainan from 2010 to 2017, premier from 2017 to 2019 and then vice president. He took office as the eighth president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in May 2024, the third Democratic Progressive Party member to hold the POST.
The drone law gives his administration a legal frame for building unmanned forces over several budget cycles, rather than relying on one-off appropriations.