About 60 percent of Taiwanese would support the government readjusting its budget so that the annual defense spending exceeds 3 percent of the nation’s GDP, a poll conducted by a Ministry of National Defense-affiliated think tank showed.
Taiwan’s national defense budget for next fiscal year is NT$606.8 billion (US$19.37 billion), a record-high, but is only 2.5 percent of GDP, the Institute for National Defense and Security Research said.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute statistics show that Israel’s defense spending in last fiscal year was 4.5 percent of its GDP, while Washington’s was 3.5 percent of the US’ GDP, the institute added.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The institute’s questionnaire asked respondents whether they supported the government cutting other expenditures to ensure that 3 percent of GDP is spent on defense or it raising taxes to support increased defense spending.
More than half of the respondents said that the nation’s defense budget was insufficient, with 9 percent saying it was “severely insufficient” and 46 percent saying it was “insufficient,” the poll showed.
Fifty-nine percent of respondents support the government funneling other expenditures into defense to boost the defense budget to 3 percent of GDP, the poll showed.
However, support for a higher defense budget drops to 41 percent if the government funds it by increasing taxes, the poll showed.
Institute for National Defense and Security Research researcher Lee Kuan-chen (李冠成) said the institute commissioned National Chengchi University’s Pollcracy Lab to conduct an online poll from Nov. 12 to Nov. 13, receiving 1,214 valid copies.
Lee did not mention the poll’s margin of error.
In other news, a ministry report said that the planned relocation of the Armaments Bureau’s 205 Armory would not affect weapons production.
As new armory manufacturing commences, it is expected to exceed previous production quotas by several times, it added.
The armory is expected to meet its yearly production quota for the 5.56mm bullets before the production line is shut down, the ministry said, adding that the ministry is to purchase new equipment to install at the new armory site to continue production of armaments.
Integration and upgrades to existing production lines, which are expected to be completed by December 2025, would double production of essential components to 40,000 pieces annually, it said.
The same process is expected to be carried out for munition annual production of all calibers, and the output of 9mm bullets is expected to increase to 20 million rounds from 3 million, while the output of 7.62mm bullets is to increase to 32 million, from 24 million, and that of 5.56mm bullets is to rise to 40 million from 24 million, the ministry said.
New production lines for personal armament and equipment manufacturing are also to be installed, bringing annual production to 90,720 from 40,500, it said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS