Taiwan’s government is moving forward with a record defense-spending proposal — encompassing a 14 percent military spending boost. That proposal is subject to approval by the country’s legislature.
The proposal follows Beijing’s massive live-fire drills surrounding Taiwan, which it undertook after U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island this month. Taiwan’s ministry of defense said the budget would be equivalent to 2.4 percent of Taiwan’s GDP, the Taipei Times reported.
Taiwan’s budget chief, Chu Tzer-ming, said the sharp increase would help cover increased operations costs, especially those related to dispatching planes and ships to counter Chinese incursions into Taiwan’s air-defense zone and heightened naval activity. “We always give safety and national security the top priority,” said Chu.
Earlier today, the ministry of defense said that 35 People’s Liberation Army jets and eight ships were involved in military activities on Friday in the air and seas surrounding Taiwan.
BREAKING: @MoNDefense confirmed as of 1700hrs today, 35 PLA aircrafts & 8 PLA vessels conducted military activities around Taiwan. That’s a spike in numbers as compared to the past few days. Out of the 35 aircrafts, 18 crossed the median line or entered Taiwan’s Southwest ADIZ. pic.twitter.com/Pf0aZtDjtW
— Tingting Liu 劉亭廷 (@tingtingliuTVBS) August 26, 2022
In the recent past, Taiwan has increased its defense budget by about 4 percent annually. The Taipei Times reported in late July that a similar 4.09 percent boost was expected for the following year. After China’s new military activity, however, the administration of Tsai Ing-wen seemed to opt for the considerably larger increase that was announced this week.
The significance of this defense spending proposal was not lost on Washington, where lawmakers said it demonstrated Taipei’s seriousness about confronting the Chinese threat. The news could intensify bipartisan calls for the U.S. to do more to assist Taiwan’s military defense capability building.
Representative Mike Gallagher said in a statement this morning that Taiwan’s budget increase should inspire a greater U.S. commitment to Taiwan:
This significant defense increase is an important signal that Taiwan is committed to defending its democracy. It should be laser-focused on asymmetric capabilities that would block a CCP invasion. Now it is time for the US to do our part. This means both delivering desperately needed and already approved sales, as well as financing Taiwan’s acquisition of key defense capabilities, much the way we did for Ukraine after 2014. We cannot wait until the invasion starts to provide security assistance, expanded joint training, or enhanced military infrastructure in the region. We must have a sense of urgency to better defend Taiwan before it is too late.
Senator Marsha Blackburn, who made an unannounced stop in Taiwan yesterday to meet with Tsai and other top officials, told reporters on a conference call today that she believes much of the new increase will be allocated to asymmetric capabilities to boost Taiwan’s defenses.
“They’re talking also about ways that they can increase an army reserve component. They are looking at what they’re going to do with cyber and cybersecurity, electronic warfare, and communications resilience,” she said. “Those are all components of it as well as the traditional artillery, weaponry that would be needed in their defense posture.”