Hawkish China Triggers Taiwanese Defence Budget Rise

Taiwan’s force modernisation still short of international buy-in so indigenous development and manufacturing remains vital.

- JR Ng

Tensions between the People’s Republic of China (PRC, or China) and the Republic of China (RoC, or Taiwan) – which claims the latter as a part of its territory and seeks to achieve eventual unification, by force if necessary – has never been this pronounced since the Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1996.

Although China had for decades been seemingly content to maintain an uneasy status quo with Taiwan, military encounters between their armed forces have been steadily growing in recent years given the rapid modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the growing frequency and complexity of its military exercises around the Taiwan Strait. In March this year, two PLA Air Force (PLAAF) J-11 combat aircraft crossed the de facto ‘median line’ over the waters that separate Taiwan from the mainland, prompting a scramble by the island’s own air force to shadow the intruding aircraft.

The military exercises are only part of China’s multi-pronged efforts to tighten its noose on Taiwan, which has also seen Beijing wield its growing diplomatic and economic clout to pressure global industry to cease references to Taiwan as a nation, as well as convince governments to sever their diplomatic ties with Taipei. The uncertain security environment has spurred Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen’s administration to increase defence spending in 2019 to $11 billion (NT346 billion), a 5.6 percent ($600 million) increase over expenditure in 2018. According to Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokesperson Chen Chung-chi, the government plans to incrementally increase the military budget to $13.6 billion (NT$421.8 billionn) by 2029.