Taiwan responds to Beijing threats with pledge to increase military spending to ‘ensure national security’

Taiwan plans to acquire more weapons to increase its fighting power in the face of growing military threats from Beijing, a move certain to further provoke the mainland amid the escalating trade war and military tensions between China and the US.

The self-ruled island’s defence ministry announced new spending plans on Wednesday which it said were intended to echo President Tsai Ing-wen’s national day pledge to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty.

“In addition to building our indigenous submarines and warplanes, [we] will take swifter actions to acquire new weapons and armaments in order to quickly increase our defence power,” it said.

The defence ministry statement said there were three ways for the military to safeguard the sovereignty of the self-ruled island, ensure the security of its 23 million people and maintain stability in the region.

“They include increasing the national defence budget to ensure national security, promoting indigenous defence to help develop the national defence industry, and ensuring the best welfare for military personnel to achieve the success of our conscription system.

“In the future, we will increase our defence budget every year and in the event of purchases of crucial weapons, the ministry will prepare special budgets,” the defence ministry said.

The military has listed an NT$346 billion (US$11 billion) budget for 2019, up NT$18.3 billion (US$588 million) from last year.