Taiwan pledges $40 billion in additional defense budget

Taiwan will introduce a supplementary defense budget of 1.25 trillion Taiwanese dollars ($40 billion) as Beijing accelerates military preparations near the island, President Lai Ching-te said at a press briefing Wednesday.

China has continued to increase military drills and so-called “gray-zone harassment” around Taiwan, with the goal of seizing the island by force by 2027, Lai said, according to a CNBC translation of his remarks in Mandarin. The speech comes in the aftermath of a diplomatic dispute between China and Japan over Taiwan.

Lai added that Beijing had intensified its “infiltration and influence campaign,” using a range of tools to interfere in Taiwan’s politics and society as it seeks to sway public opinion and undermine the island’s democracy.

He also cautioned “unprecedented military buildup” by Beijing and “intensifying provocations in the Taiwan Strait, in the East and South China Seas, and across the Indo-Pacific.”

Beijing considers democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and Chinese President Xi Jinping regards its reunification with the mainland “a historical inevitability.” Taiwan rejects those claims.

China has been piling pressure on Taipei and has conducted several military drills off the coast of the island over the past few years, issuing stern warnings over the Taiwan’s “provocations for independence.”

Lai on Wednesday vowed to build up Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities in the face of growing threats from Beijing, aiming to achieve a high level of combat readiness by 2027.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comments on Lai’s remarks.

China has been locked in a diplomatic spat with Japan over Taiwan, with Beijing accusing Tokyo of intervening in its internal affairs after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said earlier this month that the use of military force in any Taiwan conflict could be deemed a “survival-threatening situation” for Tokyo. Beijing called the remarks “egregious” and has demanded a retraction.

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Xi and Takaichi in separate phone calls on Monday. Experts say that Xi likely used the call to solicit Trump’s help in influencing Takaichi to tone down her rhetoric on cross-Strait issues.

Shortly before Lai’s speech, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council in a press briefing reiterated that Beijing “resolutely opposes any effort in aiding Taiwan’s independence,” slamming Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party for undermining Taiwan’s growth prospects.