China's military pressure to raise Taiwan's defence costs to break the defence budget for the first time in 2027

On September 2nd, Taiwan’s President Rae Chengde announced that the overall national defense budget for the year 2027 will break 1 trillion yen for the first time, reaching 1 trillion 1,25 billion yuan, and continue to exceed 3% of GDP.

Reuters that day.He told military officials in Taipei that in the face of China's growing military and political pressure, Taiwan must be better prepared to enhance security.He also said that the government will continue to promote national defense autonomy, develop military industry, artificial intelligence and unmanned vehicles, and enhance the overall ability to cope with future security challenges.

Full text of the Taiwan Presidential Office speechFurther confirmed, the overall national defense budget for next year is 1 trillion 1.2 billion yuan. Li Qing said that this year's completion of the Han Gong 42 exercise is the core of real warfare, verification of joint cooperation warfare, decentralized deployment and other projects; the government will continue to improve the military treatment and training environment in the future.

Taiwan has been expanding its drone, missile, naval and air defense, reserve mobilization and civilian resilience investments over the past few years.Hanko has previously incorporated communication disruptions, attack on command systems, cross-regional reinforcement and urban air defense into training scenarios.The Taiwan military believes these preparations are closely linked to the Chinese People's Liberation Army's continued aircraft and large-scale military exercises around Taiwan.

Beijing responded with tough words.Reported by ReutersZhang Zhang, a spokesman for China’s Taiwan Post Office, criticized the Riyadh government at a routine press conference in Beijing for “inciting confrontation between the two sides” and pointed out that increasing military spending is “wasting the people’s blood sweat money”.

In recent years, the Chinese People's Liberation Army has continued to expand its military activities against Taiwan, including the Ring-Taiwan military exercises, fighter jets crossing the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, warships' activities around Taiwan and normalized sea and air patrols, which have become an important part of the security environment on the two sides of the Strait.

From a financial perspective, the defense budget of more than 1 trillion new yuan means that Taiwan society needs to bear higher security costs over the long term. The budget is not only used for arms procurement, but also for human treatment, training, unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, reserve forces, the military industry and the resilience of critical infrastructure. The policy logic of the Taiwan government is to reduce the possibility of misjudgment and military action by increasing defense capabilities; opponents may question spending efficiency, arms procurement implementation and long-term fiscal pressure.

Focus on Chinese comments

What really needs to be asked is who is continuously pushing the security cost of Taiwan. Beijing has long claimed to pursue "peaceful reunification", but in reality, at the same timeins military threats, expands military exercises and sea pressure, and refuses to give up arms options. When Taiwan thus continuously increases national defense budgets, the CCP in turn accuses Taiwan of "defeating arms". This narrative avoids a basic cause-and-effect relationship: a democratic society invests more resources in self-defense, first because it faces increasingly clear coercion and military pressure from the opposite coast.

The policy of the Xi Jinping regime toward Taiwan is increasingly reflecting the logic of compressing political choice space with military deterrence. Beijing has not given Taiwan society a framework for free discussion and choice of the future, but has "unification" as a predetermined endpoint, and has forced Taiwan to accept this outcome with military exercises, diplomatic isolation, economic pressure and political propaganda. For Taiwan, the continuous rise of the national defense budget is itself one of the real costs of this coercive policy.

This also constitutes a long-term paradox: The more Xi Jinping emphasizes military force forcing Taiwan to accept reunification, the more Taiwan society is motivated to strengthen its own defense and expand security cooperation with the United States, Japan and other democracies.Beijing attempts to reduce Taiwan’s strategic autonomy under pressure, but the result may further strengthen Taiwan society’s distrust of the Communist Party of China and promote a higher degree of military preparation.

What is truly worth concerning in the future is not only the figure of 1 trillion and 225 billion yuan, but whether these funds can effectively be converted into air defense, anti-ship, unmanned systems, backup mobilization, command resilience and social defense capabilities; at the same time, it will also be observed whether Beijing continues to expand military pressure.