Taiwan's military ran live attack-drone exercises this week, four days ahead of the September 24 Trump-Xi summit where Taiwan's own procurement list is the item under discussion. The drills came as Taiwan's defense ministry tracked 20 Chinese warplanes and 14 ships around the island, continuing a pattern the ministry logged at 28 aircraft and nine vessels on September 18. Washington, meanwhile, is weighing delaying the Taiwan arms sales Beijing has demanded be scrapped as the price of Xi's White House visit, according to the South China Morning Post. Taipei is not waiting on that decision to arrive by cable.

A government that trusts its supply line does not drill with the weapons still in the warehouse. Taiwan's defense ministry, under Minister Wellington Koo since 2024, is training crews on drones it may or may not still be permitted to import once Washington finishes weighing the delay Beijing is pricing into a summit. The lesson Taipei has drawn from watching its own arms sale become a bargaining chip is that readiness cannot be outsourced to a negotiation it does not attend. If the delay goes through, Taiwan enters any future crisis with drone crews trained on hardware whose resupply now runs through a room in Washington it has no seat in.