Tsai Ing-wen vows to boost Taiwan defence budget amid military threats
President says island must be prepared as tensions escalate in the region
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday said the defence budget would increase every year so that the island can develop its own weapons and buy more arms from the US, as regional tensions continue to escalate.
Tsai made the comments during a year-end press conference held for the first time at Taiwan’s weapons research and development facility, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology.
“In the year to come, we will maintain steady growth of our defence budget at a reasonable level,” Tsai said, adding that weapons development was a pressing task for the island.
“Building our own defences will no longer be a slogan, but the daily task we must fully realise.”
She said Taiwan had to be prepared, given the mainland military’s rapid expansion and frequent activities within and outside the Taiwan Strait, along with mounting tensions on the Korean peninsula and maritime disputes in the East and South China seas.