Well, the whole defense spending kick is showing no signs of abating. Yesterday, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te announced in an op-ed in the Washington Post that his country plans to spend an extra $40B (about NT$1.25T) on defense to counter the growing threat from China.
A massive portion of the supplementary defense package—which would be spent from 2026-2033 if passed by Parliament—will go towards a multi-layered air and missile defense system called T-Dome that sounds a hell of a lot like a certain golden-hued project stateside.
“There is no room for compromise on national security,” Lai said at a press conference in Taiwan’s presidential office this morning. “National sovereignty and the core values of freedom and democracy are the very foundation of our nation.”
In the op-ed, Lai wrote that “[the] landmark package will not only fund significant new arms acquisitions from the United States, but also vastly enhance Taiwan’s asymmetrical capabilities.” The goal, he said, “to bolster deterrence by inserting greater costs and uncertainties into Beijing’s decision-making on the use of force.”
Close the window: In case you have been living under a rock, Taiwan has a bit of a bad neighbor problem. China considers the democratically-run island its own territory, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping has hinted that he wants the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to be “capable of invading” the island by 2027. That, friends, is the Davidson Window.
Meanwhile, from Washington, President Trump has pushed countries around the world to increase defense spending and decrease reliance on the US.
Lai framed the package squarely between these two trends. “In response to growing pressure from Beijing, our defense spending, which has already doubled in recent years, is expected to rise to 3.3 percent of gross domestic product by next year,” he wrote. “I am committed to lifting this baseline to 5 percent by 2030, representing the largest sustained military investment in Taiwan’s modern history.” FWIW, Taiwan’s defense budget edged over $30B this year.
He also said that the country will “invest in cutting-edge technologies and expand Taiwan’s defense industrial base.” Good news for all you defense tech nerds out there opening offices in Taipei.
Here’s a bit more on where the money would go:
- T-Dome: A Golden/Iron Dome-type missile and air defense shield that will be “designed to protect Taiwan from PRC missiles, rockets, drones and combat aircraft.” Let’s hope they don’t have a government shutdown.
- Precision-strike missiles, unmanned systems, and deep-strike/amphibious-landing denial munitions. The vibe we’re getting is that a significant portion of these will be from US companies.
- Mobile, dispersed command-and-control networks, and C4ISR beef-up. That’s to make sure that they know when the whole 2027 thing is actually happening and they have the AI-backed tools to kick off a response.
Lai said that his administration would continue to push for collaboration both domestically and with international partners, including through efforts like the “Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee,” which was launched earlier this year.
The goal is to use cutting-edge tech and capabilities to build an “unassailable Taiwan,” he added.
Push it: Here’s the twist, though: Just because Lai said he wants to increase defense spending doesn’t necessarily mean the island nation will. The supplementary package still needs to be passed by Taiwan’s parliament, dominated by the opposition Kuomintang party, which majorly opposes increasing defense spending.
But at least Washington seems happy. Raymond Greene, the de facto US ambassador to Taiwan, called the package a “major step towards maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait by strengthening deterrence” and said that the US would support Taiwan’s “rapid acquisition of critical asymmetric capabilities.”
Worth noting that the Trump administration just approved a $330M sale of fighter jets and other aircraft bits and bobs to Taiwan earlier this month.