Former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger today commended President William Lai's (賴清德) recent pledge to raise military spending, calling it an important signal of Taiwan's commitment to self-defense.
At the Halifax International Security Forum in Taipei, Pottinger, who served in the role from 2019 to 2021 during US President Donald Trump's first presidency, spoke about Lai's pledge to propose a special budget plan to increase Taiwan's defense spending to more than 3 percent of GDP.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Lai made the pledge, along with commitments to double down efforts on defense reforms and enhance civil protections, shortly after Trump accused Taiwan of "[taking] our chip business away" while again threatening tariffs on foreign semiconductors entering the US.
"It's really important as a signal to the United States and other countries about Taiwan's commitment to its defense," added Pottinger, who currently chairs the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Lai's pledged special budget, if successful, would bring Taiwan's defense expenditure on par with the US' share of GDP, Pottinger said.
Three percent "seems like a good bargain to me," considering Ukraine's current investment in its ongoing fights against Russian troops and the US' at the peak of the Cold War in the 1980s, he added.
Joining Pottinger at the HFX Taipei's talk were former US ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert, former Ukrainian parliamentarian Hanna Hopko and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲).
Taiwan's annual defense spending has hovered between 2 and 2.5 percent of GDP since former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in 2016, but it has yet to surpass 3 percent.
It remains to be seen whether Lai's pledged defense increase, which would likely see Taipei purchasing more defense articles from Washington, would materialize because his party does not have a majority in the legislature and faces a strong backlash from the opposition.
For this fiscal year, the Cabinet initially earmarked NT$647 billion (US$19.76 billion) for the Ministry of National Defense, or 2.45 percent of GDP.
However, the final appropriation is still uncertain, after opposition lawmakers imposed several cuts and freezes at various stages of the budget review, some of which may have overlapped, leaving the executive branch to verify the final figures.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS