Beijing’s military budget has increased at the same rate as last year – but Taiwan is taking no chances

Taiwan has said it does not want an ‘arms race’ with mainland China, as Beijing announced a rise in its military budget of 7.2%

But Taipei said it still wants to be ready for a potential conflict, so is planning more live-fire drills and training of troops

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Beijing has announced an increase in its military budget similar to last year. But Taiwan is still feeling the pressure, as it prepares its troops for a potential cross-strait war. Photo: AP

Published: 10:00am, 9 Mar 2024Updated: 3:58pm, 9 Mar 2024

Despite Beijing’s annual military budget being set at the same growth rate as last year’s, Taipei has pledged more live-fire drills and training to prepare its troops for a potential cross-strait war.

At Tuesday’s opening of the annual legislature session, Beijing announced an increase in its annual military budget of 7.2 per cent, pushing it up to 1.67 trillion yuan (US$232 billion).

The rise is the same rate as last year, but higher than the country’s growth target of 5 per cent this year. It is also the world’s second-highest military budget, behind the United States – and 16½ times more than that of Taiwan.

Premier Li Qiang also pledged on Tuesday to “provide stronger financial guarantees for efforts to modernise our national defence and the armed forces on all fronts” as well as to “strengthen military training and combat readiness” to safeguard the mainland’s national sovereignty, security and development interests.

In response, Taiwanese Defence minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said on Thursday the island had no plan to begin an arms race with the mainland.

“We do not want to have an arms race [with Beijing],” Chiu said. “It is an undeniable fact that our enemy is bigger and more powerful.”

Chiu said the increase in the spending for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was due, in part, to its need to support its huge personnel and operation systems.