Taiwan joins global arms-buying bandwagon, but not all are aboard

The government of Taiwan, anxious to strengthen the island country’s military defenses, is facing stern warnings from China and domestic critics not to import weapons from the United States.

In late November, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te announced plans to spend $40 billion for advanced military equipment including sophisticated jet fighters, drones and rockets. The expenditures are needed because “China’s threats to Taiwan and the Ind-Pacific region are escalating,” he said.

Lai described the plan as being Taiwan’s regional responsibility. He argued that Taiwan is a key component in the defense of Japan and allies in the “first island chain” opposite the Chinese mainland. “We must demonstrate our determination and take on a greater responsibility in self-defense,” he declared.

The proposal was announced within days after Taiwan announced a pair of arms purchases from the United States. One acquisition involved upgraded aircraft components worth $330 million. The second, of a surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile system, costs $700 million.

The purchases were Taiwan’s first from the United States since President Donald Trump began his new four-year term in January.

Part of a global trend

Lai’s buying spree puts Taiwan into the global military buildup taking place across two hemispheres. Gone are the post-Cold War days when major countries, especially Western democracies, believed an open-ended era of reduced defense spending had begun.

They sought to allocate the “peace dividend” into social programs, economic development, education and, recently, climate control. The period seemed to herald a blossoming of democracy.

But a new Cold War got underway with the West facing off against authoritarian China, Russia and assorted allies – a so-called Axis of Resistance bent on challenging Western economic, political and military dominance. The peace dividend is being diverted back into war preparations.

In this panorama, Taiwan would seem to be a minor addition. After all, Western European countries, especially those that border Russia, have begun increasing military spending in response to Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russia itself has increased its defense spending to $149 billion this year, a 36 percent increase over 2023 levels.

Washington’s enormous defense budget, which had alternated between flat spending periods and spikes on occasion due to warfare, will reach $1 trillion in 2026.

East Asian democracies joined the arms race with gusto in response to a pair of worrying events:

• The Russian invasion of Ukraine revived the fear of pan-European conquest thought to have died in 1945; and
• China’s growing might and threatening rhetoric produced similar concerns – and a rearmament boom.

Xi Jinping’s role

Taiwan’s central place in all this came with the arrival of Xi Jinping as China’s latest leader for life. China had long insisted that Taiwan must someday join the mainland, but Xi added forceful threats in word and deed.

Under Xi, China’s military spending has increased to about 150 percent of the country’s Gross National Product, reaching $250 billion this year. Among the results was the creation of the world’s largest navy and plans to increase in the size of its nuclear warhead arsenal from 600 to 1,000 by 2030.

Taiwan became a central focus of Xi’s belligerency, and therefore of regional tensions. Xi has expressed increasing impatience with Taiwan’s evident disinterest in unification and said such dawdling could not be passed down from generation to generation.

When Lai unveiled his defense plans, Beijing flexed its newly muscular threatening style. Zhang Han, spokesperson at China’s State Council Taiwan Affairs Office described the move as self-defeating. “Buying weapons does not bring security; instead, it accelerates Taiwan’s slide into danger,” she said.

Zhang added a jab at Taiwan’s growing hope of getting aid from the United States. “For the sake of political self-interest, the Lai authorities bow and curry favor with external forces, pandering to the United States without principles and selling out Taiwan without limits,” Zhang said, adding that the US considers Taiwan “fatty meat” – a succulent Chinese dish – to be devoured by Washington.

Chinese CGTN state television quickly aired a depiction of what would be in store for Taiwan if it resisted the mainland. It broadcast army teams armed with rifles, machine guns and anti-tank projectiles in a live-fire drill. The troop stormed a mock up of a ruined city to “test multiple combat skills that are essential for urban offensive operations,” according to the report.

A NATO official said China is deploying about 100 naval and coast guard vessels across the China Seas and the Taiwan Strait and into the Pacific Ocean. The warships and attendant aircraft are carrying on practices that simulate “control over contested waters.”

Tsai Ming-yen, Taiwan’s National Security Bureau director, said China is operating four naval formations in the area. It is “not unlikely” that China might consider combining drills like this into an actual attack on Taiwan., Tsai said. “We need to be prepared for possible enemy advancement,” he advised.

Opposition KMT derides ‘ATM’ for Washington

In Taipei Cheng Li-wun, Taiwan’s top opposition leader, parroted China’s objection to Lai’s moves and in parliament blocked legislative approval of the new weapons purchases. Such spending does “nothing to preserve peace but adds fuel to the fire,” she said online.

Cheng leads the Kuomintang, heir of the nationalist party that took refuge on Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war. The KMT has been joined with a smaller opposition group to oppose DPP policy’s.

Noting that the massive funding for arms purchases would enrich only US companies, Cheng quipped that he DPP was becoming an “ATM” from which Washington will draw money at will.

While Lai framed his actions in terms of keeping the peace through deterrence, KMT lawmaker Hsu Chiao-hsin warned that an arms buildup will only cause “deterioration in cross-Strait relations” with China.

The spending measure may yet pass the Legislative Yuan, as the legislature is known. The KMT has supported past defense spending bills aimed at deterring China.

While both China and the KMT poured scorn on Lai for depending only on the US for weapons, Taiwan has no other viable choice. “Despite Taiwan’s efforts to build new ties, most countries have been reluctant to increase security cooperation with Taiwan, fearing Chinese reprisals,” wrote The National Interest, a US defense journal.