TAIPEI: Taiwan's defence spending will rise 7.7 per cent next year, outpacing expected economic growth, the cabinet said on Thursday (Aug 22), as the island adds more fighter jets and missiles to strengthen deterrence against a rising threat from Beijing.
A standard missile fires off a Patriot PAC-2 surface-to-air missile system during a military drill in Pingtung, Taiwan , in this screengrab taken from a video on Aug 20, 2024. TAIPEI: Taiwan 's defence spending will rise 7.7 per cent next year, outpacing expected economic growth, the cabinet said on Thursday , as the island adds more fighter jets and missiles to strengthen deterrence against a rising threat from Beijing.
The spending includes a special budget worth T$90.4 billion to buy new fighter jets and ramp up missile production. That was part of the military's extra spending worth T$240 billion announced in 2021 over five years. Taiwan's government has made military modernisation a key policy platform and has repeatedly pledged to spend more on its defences given the rising threat from China, including developing made-in-Taiwan submarines.
Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang, has repeatedly expressed its support for firming up the island's defences, though it is currently involved in a stand-off with the DPP about contested reforms to give parliament greater oversight powers the government says is unconstitutional.
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