Taiwan's opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan approved around $24.9 billion in extra defense spending, roughly two-thirds of the nearly $40 billion requested by the government of President William Lai, after the Kuomintang and Taiwan People's Party narrowed the package to only U.S. weapons rather than Lai's proposed broader mix of U.S. arms and domestic arms production, the Financial Times reported on May 8. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party criticized the cut as weakening Taiwan's defenses and sending a weak deterrence signal.