Hours after Donald Trump\u2019s chilly inauguration in Washington, Taiwan\u2019s parliament voted to freeze billions of dollars in defense spending, in a move some worry could frustrate the famously transactional president, who has already demanded Taipei pay \u201cmore\u201d for US protection. <\/p>\n
The US is the main ally and arms supplier of Taiwan, a democratically ruled island and semiconductor powerhouse, which China\u2019s Communist Party views as part of its territory \u2013despite never having controlled it \u2013 and has vowed to take one day, by force if necessary. <\/p>\n
The opposition-led vote to freeze defense spending highlights the domestic challenges facing Taiwan President Lai Ching-te even as China ramps up its diplomatic and military efforts to isolate and intimidate the island. <\/p>\n
Lai\u2019s party lacks a majority in Taiwan\u2019s rough and tumble parliament, throwing doubt on his ability to pass legislation that will shore up US support \u2013 and the approval of a mercurial commander in chief in the White House. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf there is not enough budget to consistently improve Taiwan\u2019s defense reforms and capabilities, the international community will doubt Taiwan\u2019s determination to defend ourselves,\u201d Lai said Tuesday in a Facebook post. <\/p>\n
Lai\u2019s administration also slammed the opposition-backed budget freeze, which covers locally designed submarines and an indigenous drone program. <\/p>\n
The move was \u201csuicidal,\u201d Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai told reporters on Thursday, while Defense Minister Wellington Koo said it sent \u201cthe wrong signal to the United States.\u201d <\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s return to power \u2013 and his \u201cAmerica First\u201d agenda \u2013 has created some anxiety in Taiwan about Washington\u2019s commitment to the island in the event of a Chinese invasion. <\/p>\n
For decades, the US has maintained a close security partnership with Taipei, despite lacking formal diplomatic relations. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the US is legally obligated to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. However, Washington has remained deliberately vague on how it would respond to an invasion \u2013 a policy known as \u201cstrategic ambiguity.\u201d <\/p>\n
Last year, US intelligence assessments suggested that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had ordered his military to be ready for an invasion by 2027, though assessments stressed that doesn\u2019t mean an invasion will occur in 2027. <\/p>\n
Days before Trump took office, Taiwan\u2019s defense ministry made a rare acknowledgement that Washington had signed a two-year agreement to train Taiwanese soldiers at a naval base on the island. While Taiwan has previously confirmed the presence of US military trainers, it was unusual for the military to release details of such exchanges. <\/p>\n
But Trump has been a less vocal supporter of Taiwan than his predecessor Joe Biden. Last year, he wrongly accused Taiwan of stealing \u201calmost 100%\u201d of America\u2019s semiconductor industry. He also indicated that Taiwan should pay more for US protection, while suggesting the US would have difficulty defending the island because of its distance. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that Taiwan\u2019s legislature doesn\u2019t embarrass itself and lose face to foreign countries,\u201d said Wang Cheng-yi, a postgraduate student at National Taiwan University. \u201cThis might make people feel that while Taiwan is good at certain things, politically it is quite unstable.\u201d <\/p>\n
For Ms. Hsu, a 75-year-old Taipei resident who only gave her surname, the key to fostering political unity is simple. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody should sit down and talk,\u201d she said. \u201cTaiwan must balance relations with both the US and China. We are small. We cannot afford to make either big brother unhappy. It\u2019s a delicate situation.\u201d <\/p>\n
While Taipei is heavily armed with US weaponry, it is significantly outmatched by Beijing, which has the world\u2019s largest standing army and spends about 11 times more on defense than Taiwan. <\/p>\n
There are also concerns among defense experts about the effectiveness of Taiwan\u2019s reservist training and the military\u2019s slow progress in transitioning to asymmetric warfare \u2013 a strategy that focuses on smaller, harder-to-detect weapons like drones and portable missiles. While Taipei has accelerated military reforms in recent years, some observers \u2013 including the Council on Foreign Affairs \u2013 say it needs to do far more. <\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not just Taiwan\u2019s military facing budget challenges. <\/p>\n
Earlier this week, undersea cables connecting Taiwan to the outlying Matsu islands were severed due to \u201cnatural deterioration,\u201d according to the island\u2019s digital affairs ministry. The islands \u2013 controlled by Taipei but located just a few miles off the Chinese coast \u2013 previously experienced internet outages after the same cables were damaged in 2023. <\/p>\n
The ministry warned that new budget cuts \u2013 which covered everything from health care to foreign affairs \u2013 would undermine its ability to repair critical infrastructure, highlighting concerns about vulnerabilities that could be exploited by Beijing. <\/p>\n
Alexander Huang, head of international affairs for the main opposition Kuomintang party, defended the freeze on defense spending and questioned the effectiveness of investing heavily in a submarine program before the first vessel had even completed sea trials. <\/p>\n
But Wei-Ting Yen, an assistant research fellow at Taiwan\u2019s Academia Sinica, said it was \u201cextra bad\u201d that Taiwan\u2019s domestic political bickering had hindered the island from presenting a united message to the Trump team that it was serious about its defense and worthy of continued American support. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith or without Trump\u2019s inauguration, with China\u2019s increasing aggression over Taiwan, it is indeed Taiwan\u2019s top priority to continue to increase its self-defense budget,\u201d Yen said. \u201cThat\u2019s definitely not a good signal.\u201d <\/p>\n
Yeh Hsin-wei, a student in Taipei, said Taiwan\u2019s vast semiconductor industry that supplies many of the chips powering the global AI revolution was a better deterrent against Beijing. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hours after Donald Trump\u2019s chilly inauguration in Washington, Taiwan\u2019s parliament voted to freeze billions of dollars in defense spending, in a move some worry could frustrate the famously transactional president, who has already demanded Taipei…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}