TAIPEI, TAIWAN – OCTOBER 10: Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te (William Lai) delivers the National Day Address during the National Day Ceremony outside the Presidential Office on October 10, 2025 in Taipei, Taiwan.
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Taiwan will introduce a supplementary defense budget of 1.25 trillion Taiwan dollars ($40 billion) as Beijing ramps up military preparations near the island, President Lai Ching-tae said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
China continues to increase military exercises and so-called “gray-zone harassment” around Taiwan, with the goal of seizing the island by force by 2027, Lai said, according to a CNBC translation of his remarks in Mandarin. Speech comes next Diplomatic dispute between China and Japan over Taiwan.
Lai added that Beijing has intensified an “infiltration and influence campaign” using various tools to interfere in Taiwan’s politics and society as it seeks to sway public opinion and undermine the island’s democracy.
He also warned of an “unprecedented military build-up” and “escalating provocations in the Taiwan Strait, in the East and South China Seas and across the Indo-Pacific” by Beijing.
Beijing considers democratically governed Taiwan its own territory, and Chinese President Xi Jinping considers its reunification with the mainland “Historical inevitability“Taiwan denies those claims.
China has been building pressure on Taipei and has conducted several military exercises off the island’s coast in the past few years. Strict warnings Taiwan’s “Incitement for Independence.”
Beijing has increased its defense budget This year has grown 7.2% to about $245 billionwith its military assets deployed near the Taiwan Strait, according to analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Lai on Wednesday pledged to build Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities to counter growing threats from Beijing, aiming to achieve a high level of combat readiness by 2027.
S. in Singapore. “President Lai’s announcement signals Washington’s intention to increase imports to balance Taipei’s self-defense and trade between the two,” said Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
Since his election campaign, US President Donald Trump has been pressuring allies to increase defense spending. Even Trump suggested that Taiwan should be paid to be protected.
Shortly after Lai’s speech, Raymond Green, director of the American Institute in Taiwan — the de facto US embassy — said in a social media post that the United States “welcomes” a special defense budget and supports Taiwan’s “accelerated acquisition of critical asymmetric capabilities needed to strengthen deterrence.”
When asked to comment on Taiwan’s defense budget and Green’s comments, a spokeswoman China’s Foreign Ministry said in a daily press briefing Wednesday that “the Democratic Progressive Party’s plan to resist reunification and seek independence through armed forces is doomed to failure.” That’s according to CNBC’s translation of the comment into Mandarin.
China is locked in a diplomatic row with Japan over Taiwan, with Beijing accusing Tokyo of meddling in its internal affairs after Japanese Prime Minister Sane Takaichi said earlier this month that the use of military force in any Taiwan conflict could be considered an “existence-threatening situation” for Tokyo. called Beijing Comments are heavy” and demanded a withdrawal.
Trump spoke with Xi and Takaichi on separate phone calls on Monday. Experts say that Xi possibility Trump used Cole to help Influenced Takaichi to tone down his rhetoric on cross-Strait issues.
