President Lai Ching-te declared there was ‘no room for compromise on national security’ in face of escalating harassment and espionage
Beijing’s threats to Taiwan are “intensifying” and its preparations to invade are speeding up, Taiwan’s government has said while announcing a $40bn special defence budget and a swathe of measures to counter Chinese attacks.
The Taiwan president, Lai Ching-te, said there was “no room for compromise on national security”, and he was committed to boosting Taiwan’s defences in conjunction with US support.
“This is not an ideological struggle, nor a ‘unification vs independence’ debate, but a struggle to defend ‘democratic Taiwan’ and refuse to submit to being ‘China’s Taiwan’.”
Lai and defence minister, Wellington Koo, announced the spending bump – an increase of at least $8bn on what had previously been flagged – on Wednesday after a briefing from the national security council.
