The Cabinet plans to spend next year NT$949.5 billion (US$31.27 billion) on defense, amounting to 3.32 percent of GDP, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said today, which would cross a threshold of 3 percent for the first time since 2009.
The move comes as China has ramped up military and political pressure over the past five years.
Taiwan also faces calls from Washington to spend more on its own defense, mirroring pressure from the US on Europe.
Photo: Taipei Times
This month, President William Lai (賴清德) said he wanted to boost defense spending to more than 3 percent of GDP next year.
The budget includes funding for the coast guard, veterans and special projects, the agency added.
It did not say what that meant in terms of a percentage increase over this year's defense spending.
Taiwan was including spending for the coast guard in its total defense budget for the first time, two senior officials briefed on the matter told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"They are standing on the frontline," said one, referring to the coast guard, which engages in regular standoffs with China's coast guard and would, in time of war, be pressed into the navy's efforts to defend Taiwan.
The Cabinet is holding a news conference to announce budget details.
Taiwan's government has made military modernization a key policy platform and has repeatedly pledged to spend more on its defenses given the rising threat from China, including developing made-in-Taiwan submarines.
China's air force flies almost daily missions into the skies near Taiwan, and holds periodic war games, the last in April.
China is also rapidly modernizing its armed forces, with new aircraft carriers, stealth fighter jets and missiles.
In March, China unveiled a rise of 7.2 percent in this year's defense spending, to 1.78 trillion yuan (US$248.17 billion), outpacing its economic growth target for this year of about 5 percent.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS