Taiwan’s leader says increasing defence spending will ‘deter war’

TAIPEI – Taiwan aims to “deter war” by increasing its defence spending, the democratic island’s leader said on Oct 10, as China uses military pressure to assert its territorial claims.

Taiwan’s 23 million people live under the constant threat of an attack by China, which insists the island is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex it.

“Our aim by increasing investment in national defence is not to provoke; rather, it is to deter war,” President Lai Ching-te said in a speech to celebrate Taiwan’s National Day.

Beijing quickly denounced the speech, saying it “distorts the truth” and reveals “ulterior motives”.

Successive administrations have ramped up military spending as Taiwan improves its fighting abilities to avoid a potential Chinese invasion – and to show the United States it is serious about its own defence.

Lai’s government has earmarked a record NT$1.1 trillion (S$44 billion) in defence spending for 2027, which accounts for more than 3% of gross domestic product.

“We do not seek hegemony, nor do we seek to dominate others,” Lai said in his annual address in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei where thousands of people, including foreign diplomats, were gathered.

“However, peace cannot rely solely on wishes, and tolerance cannot become a pretext for aggressors to encroach ever further,” Lai said, noting that China continued to “apply pressure through military and grey-zone activities in an attempt to alter the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.”

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Lai’s speech “disregards facts, distorts the truth, misleads the public, and reveals ulterior motives”.

The office also accused Lai of stubbornly clinging to “Taiwan independence” separatist thinking and exaggerating the “threat from the mainland”.

“There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is part of China – this is the true status quo in the Taiwan Strait,” the office said.

China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, calls the President a “separatist” and has rebuffed his offers of talks.

Taiwanese fighter jets and two Chinook helicopters carrying giant Taiwan flags flew over Taipei ahead of Lai’s speech.

The celebrations on Oct 10 mark the 115th anniversary of the toppling of China’s Qing dynasty and the subsequent founding of the Republic of China.

The current dispute between China and Taiwan dates to a civil war between the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek, who retreated to the island in 1949 after being defeated by Mao Zedong’s communist fighters.

Taiwan welcomed talks between the US and China, Lai said.

However, the President insisted that “there must be respect for the right of the people of Taiwan to exist”.

Government officials in Washington and Taipei have said repeatedly that American policy on Taiwan has not changed under President Donald Trump, whose remarks have at times jangled nerves.

While the US switched official diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing nearly 50 years ago, Washington is Taipei’s most important security backer.

Trump’s suggestion in May following a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing that US arms sales to Taiwan could be a bargaining chip with China set off alarm bells across the world.

Taiwan is waiting for Trump’s signature on US$14 billion (S$18 billion) worth of weapons, including the US-made Patriot air defence system. AFP