If Taiwan is so outclassed militarily, why should Taipei bother with military expenditures at all?
The News Lens
Date: 2017/12/01
By: Adam Hatch
Taiwan’s defense spending, always an important issue both domestically and
Photo Credit: 中華民國海軍
internationally, has been in the news even more frequently than usual this year. Some U.S. officials have urged Taiwan to raise defense spending as high as 3 percent of GDP and, in response, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced plans to increase the defense budget by 2 percent annually.
This amount, however, falls short of the recommended increase to 3 percent of GDP, with some analysts claiming it is more cosmetic than practical.
Taiwan plans to spend NT$331.8 billion on defense in 2018, approximately 1.9 percent of GDP. [FULL STORY]
