Taiwan is ramping up defense spending and modernizing its armed forces as it faces China’s much larger military, President Lai Ching-te said Saturday. He argued the buildup aims to deter war. His speech put military spending and arms purchases at the center of Taiwan’s National Day message, though the available account gives no breakdown of who will receive the money or how it will be allocated.
Defense Spending and Deterrence
“Taiwan cherishes peace, but we will not give up our freedom. We are open to exchanges, but will not accept subordination,” Lai said. He described Taiwan’s people’s right to exist as something others must respect.
“We are strengthening our self-defence not to abandon dialogue, but to ensure that dialogue can take place on the basis of parity and dignity,” Lai said. Increased defense investment, he said, is intended to deter war, not provoke it.
Taiwan is adding advanced weapons, including stealth fighter jets, aircraft carriers and a large array of missiles. The account identifies no manufacturers and gives no contract details. It reports arms-package values, including a record $14 billion package that stalled after a May summit in Beijing between Trump and Xi, and an $11-billion U.S. arms deal for Taipei, described as the largest ever.
China has pressed Washington to halt arms sales to Taiwan. The record $14 billion package stalled after the May meeting. China’s last war games near Taiwan took place in late December, after news of the $11-billion arms deal.
Pressure Across the Strait
China views Taiwan as its territory, describing it as a breakaway province or territory to be retaken by force if necessary. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. It calls Lai a “separatist” and has rebuffed his offers of talks. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Lai’s speech.
Peace can’t rely solely on “wishes,” Lai said. He described Taiwan’s resolve as a matter of survival in the face of what he called “authoritarian expansion,” and as a question of whether the international community believes force can override rules or strip people of the right to determine their future.
In 2024, shortly after Lai’s first National Day speech as president, China held war games around the island. China didn’t hold war games around Taiwan last year. In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his U.S. counterpart he hoped the United States would adhere to “the correct position of opposing ‘Taiwan independence’” during his visit to Washington.
Diplomacy and Regional Alignment
Lai welcomed the United States and China managing their competition through dialogue and reducing the risk of conflict and war. He urged Indo-Pacific democracies to cooperate. “Democracies in the Indo-Pacific must join forces to ensure the status quo of peace and stability in the region is not changed,” he said.
China and Taiwan have been governed separately since 1949, when a civil war brought the Communist Party to power in Beijing and defeated Nationalist Party forces fled to Taiwan. Taiwan has operated with its own government since then. The island’s formal name remains the Republic of China; its Republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists.
Foreign guests at the celebration included Eswatini King Mswati III and Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith of the U.S. Indiana state, who offered congratulations in Taiwan, Lai’s office said. Eswatini is Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Africa. A Japanese parliamentary delegation also visited and joined the National Day activities. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi angered Beijing last November by saying a hypothetical Chinese military action against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, justifying Japanese troop engagement.