Taiwan announces plans for record-breaking defense budget after China drills

Taiwan on Thursday announced plans for a record increase in its defense budget after huge military drills by China earlier this month pushed tensions between the two to the highest level in decades.

Taipei has proposed a defense budget of US$415.1 billion ($13.7 billion) for next year, a 13 percent increase from last year, subject to parliamentary approval.

An additional special budget will also be created specifically for the acquisition of new fighter jets and other projects to increase naval and air capabilities, the top budgetary authority said in a statement.

“To protect national security, next year’s total defense budget will hit a record high of $586.3 billion,” a cabinet spokesman quoted Premier Su Tseng-chang as saying.

Taiwan lives under the constant threat of an invasion from China, which claims it will one day occupy the democratic island as part of its territory – by force if necessary.

Beijing’s saber-rattling has become even more pronounced under President Xi Jinping, China’s most assertive leader in a generation.

The boosted military budget was unveiled after Beijing held unprecedented drills across Taiwan in retaliation for the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei earlier this month.

Beijing has lashed out at any diplomatic move that might lend legitimacy to Taiwan, and has met growing anger at visits by Western officials and politicians.

For a week after Pelosi’s visit, China sent warships, missiles and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan, its largest and most aggressive maneuvers since the mid-1990s.

Even before this month’s drills, Beijing had increased military pressure on Taiwan in recent years, particularly through incursions into the island’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

Last year, Taiwan recorded incursions by around 970 Chinese warplanes into its air defense zone, more than double the around 380 in 2020, according to a database compiled by AFP.

The number this year has already exceeded 980, with more than 360 attacks recorded in August alone.

The increased activity is straining Taiwan’s outgunned military resources, particularly its aging fleet of fighter jets.

“In response to the cross-strait situation, there have been significant increases in business continuity as our aircraft and naval vessels have been (increasingly) deployed,” budget chief Chu Tzer-ming told reporters.

In the past, Taiwan’s military has favored large acquisitions such as fighter jets and warships.

But American and Taiwanese strategists have increasingly urged Taipei to adopt a “porcupine” strategy of asymmetric warfare.

This strategy emphasizes the purchase of comparatively inexpensive and mobile weapon systems, such as anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, and the training of soldiers and civilian reservists to fight behind enemy lines, to make an invasion a bleak prospect even for China’s massive military.