(ANSA) – BEIJING, AUG 25 – Taiwan will increase its defense budget by 13.9% in 2023, to a record of 586.3 billion Taiwanese dollars (19.41 billion dollars), including the purchase of new fighters and other material, in response to the growing military threat from China and its activities around the island after the visit to Taipei in early August by the speaker of the US House, Nancy Pelosi. The package, on which Parliament will have to express its opinion, marks the sixth year in a row of growth in defense funds since 2017. Overall military spending represents 14.6% of the government budget for 2023, of which the fourth largest entry.
Taiwan announced last year an extra defense budget of $ 8.69 billion by 2026 (in addition to annual military spending, especially for weapons to the Navy, including missiles and ships), as a measure designed against continuing military pressure. Chinese on the island that Beijing considers an “inalienable” part of its territory to be reunified even by force, if necessary. Last March, as part of the state budget of 2022, China announced a 7.1% increase in the defense budget, to 1.450 billion yuan (about 210 billion dollars), attracting traditional criticism of the opacity of spending. considered to be well above what is officially indicated. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, as mirrored by the President of the People’s Republic Xi Jinping since her rise to power in 2012, has made the modernization of the military a priority to protect the status quo of relations across the Taiwan Strait. (HANDLE).
Source: Ansa
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