China’s live-fire military drills that surrounded Taiwan for almost a week may have ended, but Beijing’s military aircraft and warships are still present in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan’s defense officials say now that a special budget for upgrading the navy and air force has been passed, they expect Taiwan to be able to produce more than 1,000 anti-ship and cruise missiles in the coming five years. The expanded arsenal will help Taiwan adopt a "porcupine strategy," a type of asymmetric warfare that focuses on fortifying Taiwan’s smaller defenses to exploit China’s weaknesses, rather than confronting China head-on.

The PLA is continuing to operate in areas in and around the Taiwan Strait. On Saturday, the Ministry of National Defense recorded 29 sorties of warplanes flying near Taiwan, of which 13 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait. Six warships also appeared on the radar, showing Beijing has not relented in its intimidation of Taiwan.

Kurt Campbell, the White House Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, criticized China, saying it “overreacted” and used House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit as a pretext to launch an intensified pressure campaign against Taiwan and change the status quo.

Campbell said that the U.S. would continue to conduct standard air and maritime transits through the Taiwan Strait in the next few weeks and deepen ties with Taiwan. Taiwan, for its part, is also strengthening its own self-defense capabilities.

After Taiwan’s legislature approved a special budget for procurements to enhance the navy and air force’s combat capabilities, annual mass production of various types of missiles got a huge boost.

In the next five years, production of Hsiung Feng III missiles is expected to reach 350, and Hsiung Feng II and Hsiung Sheng ground-to-ground missiles should reach 655. Adding up the numbers of various anti-ship and cruise missiles to be produced, the total comes to 1,005. In addition, with Taiwan’s planned purchase of 400 Harpoon missiles from the U.S. that will be deployed along the coast, the overall anti-ship capabilities of Taiwan will be greatly strengthened, and it will be able to adopt a porcupine strategy.

Su Tzu-yun
Institute for National Defense and Security Research
Medium and long-range anti-ship missiles are on the frontlines to block the enemy, and when the enemy approaches the shore, the army’s portable missile launchers and Javelin missiles will be used against the next wave of beachhead assault. This will make it very hard for China to effectively stage a landing.

Experts believe that in response to China’s increased military threat, Taiwan should up its defense budget.

Su Tzu-yun
Institute for National Defense and Security Research
Taiwan’s annual defense budget roughly stands at 1.7% to 1.8% of our GDP, which is relatively low. We should use our personnel cost as a benchmark, which is about NT$160 billion on average. So there should be at least three times more. In other words, one third will be spent on personnel costs, one third on equipment procurement and one third on maintenance costs. That is will reach a scale of NT$480 billion. I think this is more reasonable.

Reports say the Ministry of National Defense is pushing to increase the annual defense budget, which stands at NT$374 billion this year, by 4.2%, reaching nearly NT$390 billion. In other words, if Taiwan is to be prepared militarily, it should first be prepared financially.