Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te announced on Thursday a proposed defense budget of $19.76 billion for fiscal 2025.
The proposal would increase military spending by 6.7 percent through 2024, making it the highest amount ever allocated by the Republic of China (ROC) to defense.
“We are determined to strengthen our self-defense capabilities and enhance cooperation with our democratic partners to ensure peace and prosperity,” Lai said. said on wednesday.
While Lai did not specifically mention China as the main threat to “peace and prosperity,” it was clear that China is the enemy Taiwan fears most.
Tensions between China and Taiwan have risen steadily since Lai took up his post in Taiwan. Elected Lai became mayor of Taipei in January, replacing Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). China has accused both Tsai and Lai of being “separatists” and has sought to diplomatically isolate Taiwan since Tsai took power.
Lai’s record defense budget proposal is actually not a major departure from Taipei’s usual spending priorities: The new military budget is still well below the 3 percent of GDP that international analysts generally consider reasonable, and Taiwan still spends more on social welfare, education, science and economic development.
Taiwan’s military budget has increased each of the past five years after hitting a low of 2% of GDP in 2019. If Lai’s budget proposal is approved by parliament before the Dec. 1 deadline, Taiwan will rank 21st in the world in terms of military spending, with China second and the United States remaining first.
Washington has been urging Taiwan to boost spending amid a growing threat from China. Taiwan currently gets about 99% of its military equipment from the United States, which has pledged to defend it in the event of a Chinese invasion.
Taiwan Extension Taiwan extended compulsory military service for men from four months to a year in January. Recruits were also told they would face tougher training, including combat training similar to that given to U.S. soldiers. Some young Taiwanese responded favorably to the change, saying they were eager to defend their country and wanted to make the one year of mandatory military service worthwhile.
Eight months later, Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo said The military lacks the equipment and instructors to deliver the kind of intensive training that was promised, and plans to step up reservist training and exercises have been delayed. The Defense Ministry’s plans to teach both recruits and reservists how to use cutting-edge drones and surface-to-air defenses have not materialized.
Military analysts say China’s growing power and heavy investments in more advanced weapons technology mean Taiwan can no longer hope to stop a ground war before it gets underway. Taiwan’s 2 million reserve troops are essential for a protracted ground war, but reservist officers complain they lack the funds to properly train them.
Taiwanese confidence in its military has fallen dangerously low, in part because new recruits are not getting the training they were promised, and while many seem to think it would be a good idea to make China hesitate to invade by projecting strength, the chances of actually winning a war if Beijing pulled the trigger are slim.
These issues were discussed on Taiwanese television. Expanded Trailers for upcoming shows Zero-day Late July. The story depicts a fictional invasion of China and its aftermath.
The 10-part series is partly Funding The new film, produced by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, is not due to air until next year but the 17-minute trailer has hit Taiwanese culture like a bombshell, sparking fierce criticism on social media and leaving some viewers in tears.
Pro-China opposition Kuomintang politician He strongly criticized in Zero-day This is delusional propaganda, a kind of “cognitive warfare” concocted by the DPP government to scare the public into supporting increased military spending.
While producers claim that the Taiwanese government has no involvement in the storyline, judging by the trailer, it doesn’t paint the Taiwanese government in a very favorable light. One storyline involves the president of Taiwan fleeing as soon as the Chinese military begins their invasion. The trailer also features a Taiwanese social media heavyweight saying that the Taiwanese government doesn’t care about the suffering of its people and just wants to make them cannon fodder.
Showrunner Chen Hsin-mei said her goal was to explore “the dark shadow of war in the minds of Taiwanese people” who have lived their whole lives knowing that a devastating war is a realistic possibility.
“Some people said that after watching this film, horror films no longer frightened them. Some said they wanted to protect Taiwan, but others said it was too exaggerated and defeatist,” she said, likening the tone of her series to a zombie apocalypse movie.
“Not a single word of the script has been altered by the government. This is not a political propaganda video or a patriotic film,” director Bhutto Lo said.
The surprisingly strong reaction to the “Zero Day” trailer suggests that, whatever its creators’ intentions, it has the potential to be a politically impactful piece of art. The question is whether it will inspire Taiwanese people to find their inner warrior and place even more emphasis on defense, or whether it will crush their spirit.
