[🇨🇳] China-Taiwan Feud

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Taiwan plans extra $40 billion in defence spending to counter China

Taiwan will introduce a $40-billion supplementary defence budget to underscore its determination to defend itself in the face of a rising threat from China, President Lai Ching-te said on Wednesday. China, which views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military and

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Taiwan plans extra $40 billion in defence spending to counter China

REUTERS
Published :
Nov 26, 2025 11:54
Updated :
Nov 26, 2025 11:54

FILE PHOTO: A CM-11 Brave Tiger tank and an M1A2T Abrams tank take part in a commissioning ceremony for Taiwan's first battalion of M1A2T Abrams tanks, at the Hukou military base in Hsinchu, Taiwan October 31, 2025. REUTERS

Taiwan will introduce a $40-billion supplementary defence budget to underscore its determination to defend itself in the face of a rising threat from China, President Lai Ching-te said on Wednesday.

China, which views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military and political pressure over the past five years to assert its claims, which Taipei strongly rejects.

As Taiwan faces calls from Washington to spend more on its own defence, mirroring US pressure on Europe, Lai said in August he hoped for a boost in defence spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product by 2030.

Unveiling the T$1.25 trillion ($39.89 billion) package, Lai said history had proven that trying to compromise in the face of aggression brought nothing but "enslavement".

"There is no room for compromise on national security," he said at a press conference in the presidential office.

"National sovereignty and the core values of freedom and democracy are the very foundation of our nation."

Lai, who first announced the new spending plan in an op-ed comment in the Washington Post newspaper on Tuesday, said Taiwan was showing its determination to defend itself.

"It is a struggle between defending democratic Taiwan and refusing to submit to becoming 'China's Taiwan'," he added, rather than merely an ideological struggle or a dispute over "unification versus independence".

Lai had previously flagged extra defence spending, but had not given details.

For 2026, the government plans such spending will reach T$949.5 billion ($30.3 billion), to stand at 3.32 percent of GDP, crossing a 3 percent threshold for the first time since 2009, government figures showed.

Speaking earlier in Beijing, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office said Taiwan was allowing "external forces" to dictate its decisions.

"They squander funds that could be used to improve people's livelihoods and develop the economy on purchasing weapons and currying favour with external powers," the spokesperson, Peng Qingen, told reporters.

"This will only plunge Taiwan into disaster."

The United States is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties.

But since President Donald Trump took office in January, it has approved only one new arms sale to Taiwan, a $330-million package for fighter jet and other aircraft parts announced this month.

"The international community is safer today because of the Trump administration's pursuit of peace through strength," Lai wrote in the Washington Post.​

 

[Saif]

China holds military drills around Taiwan

China launched live-fire drills around Taiwan on Monday that it said would simulate a blockade of the self-ruled island’s key ports, prompting Taipei to condemn Beijing’s ‘military intimidation’...

www.newagebd.net

China holds military drills around Taiwan
Agence France-Presse . Beijing, China 29 December, 2025, 21:34

A Chinese ship is seen in waters near Pingtan island, the closest point to Taiwan, in eastern China’s Fujian province on Monday. | AFP photo

China launched live-fire drills around Taiwan on Monday that it said would simulate a blockade of the self-ruled island’s key ports, prompting Taipei to condemn Beijing’s ‘military intimidation’.

Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory and has refused to rule out using military action to seize the island democracy.

The latest show of force follows a bumper round of arms sales to Taipei by the United States, Taiwan’s main security backer.

Beijing warned on Monday that ‘external forces’ arming Taipei would ‘push the Taiwan Strait into a perilous situation of imminent war’, but did not mention any countries by name.

Foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said any attempts to stop China’s unification with Taiwan were ‘doomed to fail’.

AFP reporters in Pingtan — a Chinese island that is the closest point to Taiwan’s main island — saw two fighter jets soaring across the sky and a Chinese military vessel in the distance.

Visitors to the tourist spot said they had been unaware of the drills as they milled around snapping photos.

A tourist surnamed Guo, from Inner Mongolia, said she thinks a unification will ‘definitely happen’.

‘It’s just a matter of time,’ she said.

China said early on Monday it was conducting ‘live-fire training on maritime targets to the north and southwest of Taiwan’ in large-scale exercises involving destroyers, frigates, fighters, bombers and drones.

Military spokesman Shi Yi said Beijing would send army, navy, air force and rocket force troops for drills code-named ‘Justice Mission 2025’.

He said the drills would focus on ‘sea-air combat readiness patrol, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority, blockade on key ports and areas, as well as all-dimensional deterrence outside the island chain’.

Chinese authorities published a map of five large zones around Taiwan where the war games would take place.

Taiwan said China’s designated exercise zones, some of which are within 12 nautical miles of its coast, have affected international shipping and aviation routes.

The island’s government condemned China’s ‘disregard for international norms and the use of military intimidation to threaten neighbouring countries’, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo said.

Its defence ministry said it had detected 89 Chinese military aircraft near its shores on Monday — the highest number in a single day since October 2024. It also said it had detected 28 warships and coastguard vessels.

Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration said China had declared a ‘Temporary Danger Area’ for 10 hours on Tuesday, ‘which is expected to affect flight operations in the region’.

Its military said it had established a response centre, deployed ‘appropriate forces’ and ‘carried out a rapid response exercise’, while its coastguard said it ‘immediately deployed large vessels’.

The drills by China’s ruling Communist Party ‘further confirm its nature as an aggressor, making it the greatest destroyer of peace’, Taipei’s defence ministry said.

Chinese military spokesman Shi said the drills were ‘a stern warning against ‘Taiwan Independence’ separatist forces, and a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity’.

Beijing’s military released a poster about the drills showing ‘arrows of justice’ — one engulfed in flames — raining down on a geographical outline of Taiwan.

And in an AI-generated video published by the force, eagles, sharks, wolves and bees transformed into Chinese military equipment, lashing Taiwan from the sea and air.

Another Pingtan sightseer, surnamed Lin, said she hoped to see mainland China and Taiwan unify eventually.

‘I hope things can keep getting better and develop, and our relationships can become closer and closer,’ said the 22-year-old from the southwestern province of Sichuan.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that a core theme of the exercises was a ‘blockade’ of key Taiwanese ports, including Keelung in the north and Kaohsiung in the south.

China’s military last held large-scale drills involving live firing around Taiwan in April—surprise manoeuvres condemned by Taipei.

China said this month it would take ‘resolute and forceful measures’ to safeguard its territory after Taiwan said the United States had approved a major $11 billion arms sale.

Beijing announced fresh sanctions on 20 American defence companies last week, although they appeared to have little or no business in China.

Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a backlash from Beijing last month when she said the use of force against Taiwan could warrant a military response from Tokyo.​

 

[Saif]

Live-fire drills around Taiwan completed successfully: China

China ‘successfully completed’ military drills around Taiwan that included live-fire exercises aimed at simulating a blockade of key ports and assaults on maritime targets, its military said on Wednesday...

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Live-fire drills around Taiwan completed successfully: China
Agence France-Presse . Beijing, China 31 December, 2025, 21:42

A Chinese ship is seen in waters near Pingtan island, the closest point to Taiwan, on December 29, 2025. | AFP file photo

China ‘successfully completed’ military drills around Taiwan that included live-fire exercises aimed at simulating a blockade of key ports and assaults on maritime targets, its military said on Wednesday.

Beijing launched missiles and deployed dozens of fighter jets, navy ships and coastguard vessels on Monday and Tuesday around Taiwan’s main island.

Taipei slammed the war games as ‘highly provocative and reckless’ and said they failed to impose a blockade of the self-ruled island.

China’s Communist Party has never ruled democratic Taiwan, but Beijing claims the island of 23 million people is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex it.

The Taiwanese coastguard said on Wednesday Chinese warships and coastguard vessels were withdrawing from surrounding waters.

A spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army said it had ‘successfully completed’ the drills, code-named ‘Justice Mission 2025’.

Command spokesperson Senior Captain Li Xi said Chinese troops would keep training to ‘resolutely thwart the attempts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ separatists and external intervention’.

Taiwan’s coastguard was maintaining a deployment of 11 ships at sea because China Coast Guard vessels hadn’t ‘completely left the area yet’ and ‘we can’t let our guard down’, its deputy director-general Hsieh Ching-chin said earlier on Wednesday.

Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te warned on Wednesday that Chinese drills targeting the island ‘are not an isolated incident’ and pose ‘significant risks’ to the region.

‘China’s authoritarian expansion and escalating coercion pose significant risks to regional stability and also impact global shipping, trade and peace,’ he said at a ceremony for military officers in Taipei.

China’s drills followed a bumper round of arms sales to Taipei by the United States, Taiwan’s main security backer, and comments from Japan’s prime minister that the use of force against Taiwan could warrant a military response from Tokyo.

There has been a chorus of international criticism of China’s drills.

Japan said on Wednesday that China’s military exercises ‘increase tensions’ across the Taiwan Strait, and that it had expressed its ‘concerns’ to Beijing.

Australia’s foreign ministry condemned the ‘destabilising’ drills, saying it had raised concerns with its Beijing counterparts.

The Philippines’ defence department also said it was ‘deeply concerned’ over drills that threatened to ‘undermine regional peace and stability’.

Beijing said criticism of its exercises was ‘irresponsible’.

‘These countries and institutions are turning a blind eye to the separatist forces in Taiwan attempting to achieve independence through military means,’ foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news briefing on Wednesday.

‘Yet, they are making irresponsible criticisms of China’s necessary and just actions to defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, distorting facts and confusing right and wrong, which is utterly hypocritical.’

China said on Tuesday it had deployed destroyers, frigates, fighters and bombers ‘to conduct drills on subjects of identification and verification, warning and expulsion, simulated strikes, assault on maritime targets, as well as anti-air and anti-submarine operations’.

A statement from its armed forces said the exercises in waters to the north and south of Taiwan ‘tested capabilities of sea-air coordination and integrated blockade and control’.

The drills were held as US ambassador to China David Perdue met with his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan, which are part of the Quad group that is seen as a counter to Beijing.

‘The Quad is a force for good working to maintain a free and open Indopacific,’ Perdue said in a post on X on Tuesday, alongside a photo of the four ambassadors in Beijing.​

 

[Saif]

Taiwan’s president vows to defend sovereignty after China drills

Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te vowed on Thursday to defend the democratic island’s sovereignty in a New Year’s speech, after China carried out military drills...

www.newagebd.net

Taiwan’s president vows to defend sovereignty after China drills
Agence France-Presse . Taipei, Taiwan 01 January, 2026, 22:03

Lai Ching-te. | AFP photo

Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te vowed on Thursday to defend the democratic island’s sovereignty in a New Year’s speech, after China carried out military drills.

Beijing launched missiles and deployed dozens of fighter jets, navy ships and coastguard vessels this week to encircle Taiwan’s main island, in exercises condemned by Taipei as ‘highly provocative’.

China claims democratic Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex it.

‘My stance has always been clear: to steadfastly defend national sovereignty, strengthen national defence and whole-of-society resilience, comprehensively establish effective deterrence capabilities, and build robust democratic defence mechanisms,’ Lai said in a televised address from the Presidential Office.

China’s show of force follows a bumper round of arms sales to Taipei by the United States, Taiwan’s main security backer, and comments from Japan’s prime minister that the use of force against Taiwan could warrant a military response from Tokyo.

Lai said international support for Taiwan ‘has never wavered’, which signalled that ‘Taiwan is no longer just Taiwan’.

‘We are not only indispensable, we are also a trustworthy, responsible force for good in the international community,’ Lai said.

But Lai warned that opposition delays in passing the government’s annual budget and an additional $40 billion defence spending bill could lead to questions about ‘Taiwan’s resolve’ to defend itself.

‘In the face of China’s grave military ambitions, Taiwan has no time to wait, nor any time for internal strife,’ Lai said.

‘We may hold differing views on many issues, but without a resilient national defence, there will be no nation, nor any space for debate.’

Beijing responded to the speech Thursday, saying it contained ‘lies’, state news agency Xinhua reported.

‘Lai Ching-te’s speech was filled with lies and nonsense, hostility and malice’, said Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua, Xinhua reported.

Lai ‘once again peddled the fallacy of ‘Taiwan independence’, incited cross-strait confrontation and reiterated the old tune of ‘democracy versus authoritarianism’,’ Chen added.

China’s latest military exercise was the sixth major round of manoeuvres since 2022 when a visit to Taiwan by then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi enraged Beijing.

Taiwan has responded to the growing pressure by increasing defence spending on smaller and more nimble weaponry to enable its military to wage asymmetric warfare against more powerful Chinese forces.

But it is under US pressure to do more.

Lai’s government aims to boost its 2026 defence budget to more than three per cent of gross domestic product and increase spending to five per cent of GDP by 2030.

Lai’s speech capped a dramatic few weeks in Taiwan, with a deadly metro stabbing attack in Taipei that left three people dead and a deepening domestic political crisis.

The Kuomintang party and the Taiwan People’s Party, which together control the parliament, are furious after premier Cho Jung-tai, who belongs to Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party, refused to sign opposition-backed amendments to a revenue-sharing bill, preventing them from taking effect.

Lai publicly supported Cho’s decision, further angering opposition parties, which have accused the government of ‘defying the Constitution’ and launched impeachment proceedings against them.

‘I hope that our ruling and opposition parties can stand united,’ Lai said.

‘Only through unity, not division, can we avoid sending the wrong signals to China that it could invade Taiwan.’​