{"id":309994,"date":"2025-11-26T13:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T13:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/309994\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T13:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T13:24:08","slug":"taiwan-plans-extra-40bn-in-defence-spending-to-counter-chinas-intensifying-threats-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/309994\/","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan plans extra $40bn in defence spending to counter China\u2019s \u2018intensifying\u2019 threats | Taiwan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beijing\u2019s threats to Taiwan<\/a> are \u201cintensifying\u201d and its preparations to invade are speeding up, Taiwan\u2019s government has said while announcing a $40bn special defence budget and a swathe of measures to counter Chinese attacks.<\/p>\n

The Taiwan president, Lai Ching-te, said there was \u201cno room for compromise on national security\u201d, and he was committed to boosting Taiwan\u2019s defences in conjunction with US support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not an ideological struggle, nor a \u2018unification vs independence\u2019 debate, but a struggle to defend \u2018democratic Taiwan\u2019 and refuse to submit to being \u2018China\u2019s Taiwan\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lai and defence minister, Wellington Koo, announced the spending bump \u2013 an increase of at least $8bn on what had previously been flagged \u2013 on Wednesday after a briefing from the national security council.<\/p>\n

He said Chinese authorities had escalated<\/a> military harassment, international pressure, and propaganda, as well as espionage and infiltration inside Taiwan.<\/p>\n

Lai said the most threatening annexation scenario wasn\u2019t Chinese military action, but Taiwan \u201cgiving up\u201d, according to a translation of his remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistory has proven that compromising with aggression only brings war and enslavement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Beijing\u2019s offer of a Hong Kong-style \u2018one country two systems\u2019 governance under Chinese rule should be formally considered an \u201cinviolable red line for Taiwanese society\u201d.<\/p>\n

Koo said the extra budget, covering 2026-2033, would include AI tools to improve current systems, as well as new missiles and drones.<\/p>\n

The government would also make improvements to military procurement (several big ticket orders from the US have faced significant delays), and would create new measures to protect Taiwanese abroad from Chinese transnational repression, he said.<\/p>\n

The defence budget increase is expected to lift Taiwan\u2019s spending to 3.3% of GDP in 2026, and Lai has pledged to reach 5% by 2030.<\/p>\n

Raymond Greene, the representative at the US de-facto embassy, the American Institute, said the announcement was \u201ca major step towards maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait by strengthening deterrence\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for China\u2019s Taiwan Affairs Office, Peng Qingen, earlier told a press briefing that Taiwan was squandering money on \u201ccurrying favour with external powers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will only plunge Taiwan into disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement followed a phone call between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping on Tuesday, in which Xi reiterated his claim over Taiwan<\/a> and intention to eventually annex it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaiwan\u2019s return to China is an integral part of the post-war international order,\u201d he told Trump, according to a Chinese readout.<\/p>\n

It also comes amid an ongoing diplomatic spat between China and Japan<\/a> over the latter\u2019s stance on Taiwan, after Japan\u2019s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said her country would likely get involved militarily if China attacked Taiwan<\/a>. China launched a swathe of economic retaliations in response. It has also been further angered by Japanese plans to install a missile on Yonaguni Island, Japan\u2019s closest territory to Taiwan<\/a>, just 110km off its east coast.<\/p>\n

Tokyo\u2019s defence minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, visited Yonaguni on Saturday, telling press that preparations were \u201cprogressing steadily\u201d for the installation of a medium-range, surface-to-air missile deployment.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s government accused Japan<\/a> of deliberately stoking regional tensions.<\/p>\n

\u201cJapan\u2019s deployment of offensive weapons in areas adjacent to China\u2019s Taiwan region is extremely dangerous, deliberately creating regional tensions and provoking military confrontation,\u201d said Peng on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a firm will, strong determination and a strong ability to defend our national sovereignty and territorial integrity\u2026 We will crush all foreign interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lillian Yang and agencies contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beijing\u2019s threats to Taiwan are \u201cintensifying\u201d and its preparations to invade are speeding up, Taiwan\u2019s government has said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-309994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}