Taiwan's plan for defense spending next year to exceed T$1 trillion ($31.47 billion) for the first time shows the international community the island's determination to strengthen its defenses, President Lai Ching-te said on Wednesday. Beijing, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military and political pressure over the past few years to assert its claims, which Taipei strongly rejects. Speaking to military officers on Taiwan's Armed Forces Day, Lai said better preparations brought greater security. "Only by continuously enhancing defense capabilities and deterrent power can national security and regional peace be better ensured," he said. Next year's proposed defense budget "demonstrates to the international community Taiwan's determination to strengthen its self-defense capabilities," Lai added. The government will continue to implement defense self-reliance, develop the military industrial sector, artificial intelligence, and unmanned vehicles, and "enhance Taiwan's overall capability to respond to future challenges," he said. Speaking in Beijing at around the same time as Lai, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office said Lai and his administration "recklessly incite cross-strait confrontation and antagonism while lavishly squandering the people's hard-earned money." Lai's attempts to "resist reunification through force" are "nothing but a case of overestimating their own strength, which will only bring profound disaster to the people of Taiwan," spokesperson Zhang Han told a regular press briefing. China's determination to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering, she added. Lai says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
