Taiwan plans record $27b defence budget amid tensions with China

TAIPEI • Taiwan proposed yesterday about US$19 billion (S$27 billion) in defence spending for next year, a double-digit percentage increase on the 2022 budget that includes funds for new fighter jets.

The overall defence budget proposed by President Tsai Ing-wen's Cabinet sets a 13.9 per cent year-on-year increase to a record NT$586.3 billion (S$27 billion).

The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics did not provide a specific breakdown of where the money would go.

The planned defence budget, which is a record high and must be approved by Parliament, marks the island's sixth consecutive year of growth in such spending since 2017.

The double-digit rise marks a sharp increase compared with the island's defence spending growth in recent years; yearly growth has been below 4 per cent since 2017.

Taiwan's Defence Ministry said in a statement that the budget gave full consideration to the "enemy threat" and was equivalent to 2.4 per cent of Taiwan's projected gross domestic product for next year.

The defence spending plan came weeks after China staged its largest military exercises around the island it views as its territory. It was in response to a visit earlier this month by United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The trip infuriated Beijing, which saw it as a US attempt to interfere in China's internal affairs. A separate group of US lawmakers visited Taiwan after that, and yesterday, another such group arrived on the island.

Taiwan last year announced an extra defence budget of US$8.69 billion by 2026, which came on top of its yearly military spending, mostly on naval weapons.

In March, China said it would spend 7.1 per cent more on defence this year, setting the spending figure at 1.45 trillion yuan (S$294 billion), though many experts suspect that is not the true figure, an assertion the government disputes.

China has been continuing its military activities near Taiwan, though on a reduced scale. Live-fire drills will take place in a coastal part of China's Fujian province today and tomorrow, just north of the tiny Taiwan-controlled Wuchiu islands in the Taiwan Strait, the Fujian authorities said on Wednesday, announcing a no-sail zone.

Meanwhile, Taiwan will next year begin deploying drone defence systems on its offshore islands, its Defence Ministry said, after footage emerged of Taiwanese soldiers throwing stones at a Chinese drone that buzzed a guard post near China's coast.

Taiwan has complained of repeated Chinese drone incursions near its offshore islands as part of China's war games and drills after Mrs Pelosi's visit.

The brief video clip, circulated first on Chinese social media before being picked up by Taiwanese media, shows two soldiers throwing stones at a drone that got near their guard post.

In a statement late on Wednesday, the defence command of Kinmen, a group of Taiwan-controlled islands that sit opposite China's Xiamen and Quanzhou cities, said the incident occurred on Aug 16 on Erdan islet, and confirmed the soldiers had thrown stones to see off what it called a civilian drone.

China has not commented on the footage, which has received millions of views on Chinese social media with users making fun of it.

It has also triggered heated discussion in Taiwan, with some social media users calling the incident a "humiliation" for the island's armed forces and urging the Defence Ministry to step up its countermeasures to the increasingly frequent drone incursions.

REUTERS