President Lai Ching-te ramps up defence spending to deter potential Chinese invasion
Taiwan will introduce a £30-billion supplementary defence budget to defend itself against the rising threat from China.
China has been rapidly growing its military capabilities over the past five years, while routinely threatening to bring Taiwan under its control.
President Lai Ching-te said the military aimed to have a “high level” of joint combat readiness against China by 2027, as he unveiled the $1.25 trillion NTD (£30.2bn) package in a press conference on Wednesday. The proposed spending needs to be approved by the opposition-controlled parliament before it can take effect.
Taiwan’s cabinet has allocated almost €27 billion, or 3.32% of GDP, for defence spending next year, budget documents show.
That is an increase of 22.9% on this year.
The 2026 budget includes €3.8 billion in spending on the Coast Guard Administration and military retirement benefits, which were not included last year. Overall expenditure is expected to rise 3.8% from 2025.
President Lai Ching-te previously vowed to increase defence spending to more than 3% of GDP as Washington pressured the island and other governments around the world to spend more on their own security.
Military expert Chieh Chung said if spending on the coast guard and pensions was stripped out, the defence budget would be 2.84% of GDP.
“As for Washington’s reaction, I think it will welcome Taiwan’s move to increase its defence budget, but it is still far from what they would be satisfied with,” said Chieh, an analyst at the Association of Strategic Foresight
