The government aims to increase defense spending to at least 3 percent of GDP this year, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, hours after US President Donald Trump again threatened tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors.
At a news conference in Taipei following his first high-level national security meeting this year, Lai said the government would propose a special budget this year to increase the nation’s defense spending to more than 3 percent of GDP.
“Taiwan must firmly safeguard its national sovereignty, strengthen its resolve for self-defense and bolster its defense capabilities,” he said.
Photo: Presidential Office via AP
The president also vowed to double down on defense reforms and enhance civil protections in the face of growing threats from authoritarian regimes.
Lai’s plans to increase defense spending — which, if successful, would likely see Taipei purchasing more defense articles from Washington — reflects Taipei’s broader efforts to reduce the trade deficit with the US.
The US has approved US$26.26 billion of arms sales to Taiwan over the past eight years, with US$18.76 being approved during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021, Lai said.
Taiwan will accelerate efforts to strengthen its national defense capabilities, building on years of close collaboration between Taipei and Washington, he added.
Asked if he was concerned Taiwan could become a “pawn” in the US-China competition, Lai said the nation was “an indispensable member of the world and the region.”
“We are a player, not a pawn,” he said.
His remarks came just hours after Trump, speaking with reporters in Washington after signing a presidential memorandum paving the way for tariffs on US chip imports, reiterated his claim that Taiwan “took our [the US’] chip business away.”
Trump said that the pledged economic sanctions, which could take effect as early as April, would ensure “fair” and “reciprocal” trade, while reducing the US trade deficit in its dealings with other countries over the years.
Taiwan is in the top 10 list of countries with which the US has a trade deficit.
The plans to increase defense spending followed Trump’s comments during his presidential campaign that Taiwan should increase its defense budget significantly and pay the US for protection against China.
Over the past eight years under former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the defense budget incrementally increased from NT$365.8 billion (US$11.2 billion) in 2016 to NT$606.8 billion last year. However, the spending still fell short of the 3 percent of GDP pledged by Tsai.
It remains to be seen whether the government’s pledged defense spending hike, which would require legislative approval, would materialize.
For this fiscal year, the Cabinet had earmarked NT$647 billion for national defense, amounting to 2.45 percent of GDP. However, NT$8.4 billion of that figure has been cut by the opposition-led legislature, with another NT$89.9 billion frozen, according to Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics estimates.
The legislature has yet to finalize the central government budget plan it passed on Jan. 21 after adopting numerous budget cuts and freezes.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
RSS