Taiwan Plans Record Defense Spending as China Threat Increases
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Taiwan plans to spend a record amount on national defense next year as President Tsai Ing-wen looks to bolster the island’s defenses in the face of threats from an increasingly assertive China.
Taiwan’s government proposed increasing the total national defense budget by 5.2% in 2020 to NT$358 billion ($11.4 billion) to fund a recruitment drive and hardware purchases, the statistics bureau said Thursday. Tsai has boosted military spending since 2018, after under-investment by her predecessor Ma Ying-jeou.