Taiwan announced a nearly $40 billion supplementary defense package on Wednesday, as President Lai Ching-te said the island must reinforce its ability to protect itself against intensifying military pressure from China.
The spending plan marks one of Taiwan’s largest single-year boosts and comes as Beijing continues to send aircraft and warships near the island, which it claims as its own. Taipei rejects those claims, insisting it will decide its future independently.
President Lai said the expanded budget was designed to show Taiwan’s resolve as it faces what he called an increasingly perilous security landscape. China has escalated political and military pressure over the past five years, according to Reuters and other international outlets.
The new T$1.25 trillion (US$39.89 billion) package was presented during a press conference at the presidential office. Lai said that history had proven that yielding to aggression only weakened a nation’s ability to survive. “National security leaves no room for compromise,” he said. “Our sovereignty and our core values of freedom and democracy form the foundation of this country.”
Lai first signaled the expanded budget in an opinion piece published in The Washington Post on Tuesday, framing the move as evidence of Taiwan’s determination to defend itself. The struggle, he said, was about “defending democratic Taiwan” rather than a simple dispute over unification or independence.
Washington has pushed Taiwan to invest more heavily in its own security, echoing similar pressure placed on European allies in recent years. The United States remains Taiwan’s most important security partner and is required under the Taiwan Relations Act to supply the island with defensive weapons.
Raymond Greene, the de facto U.S. ambassador in Taipei, welcomed the announcement in a post shared on Facebook. He said the United States supported Taiwan’s “rapid acquisition of critical asymmetric capabilities” and called the new spending “a major step” toward maintaining stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan has been shifting toward an “asymmetric” strategy that focuses on smaller, mobile weapons systems designed to counter China’s far larger forces. Government data show overall defense spending is expected to reach T$949.5 billion (US$30.3 billion) in 2026, equal to 3.32 percent of GDP — the first time it will cross the 3 percent mark since 2009.
Lai has previously said he wants defense spending to reach 5 percent of GDP by 2030.
In Beijing, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office criticized the new budget, accusing Taipei of acting under pressure from “external forces.”
Spokesperson Peng Qingen said Taiwan was “squandering funds that could be used to improve people’s livelihoods and develop the economy on purchasing weapons and currying favor with external powers.” He warned the move would “only plunge Taiwan into disaster.”
China maintains that Taiwan is part of its territory and has not renounced the use of force to bring it under control. Taiwan’s government says only its people can decide the island’s future.
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Africa Digital News, New York
