Taiwan defence minister says higher spending builds deterrence after China calls threat talk exaggerated

Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo told reporters at the Legislative Yuan on 14 October 2026 that raising the defence budget is the way to build effective deterrence and keep the Taiwan Strait peaceful, rejecting Chinese claims that Taipei is exaggerating the mainland threat and crowding out civilian spending.

Koo spoke before a Foreign and National Defense Committee session that also reviewed military and civil aviation roles at Songshan and Taichung airports. Asked about Beijing's rebuke of President Lai Ching-te's National Day remarks, he said the only way to avoid war is an effective deterrent based on strength, which means strengthening Taiwan's self-defence capability and resolve.

Increasing defence spending to raise that capability produces effective deterrence and maintains peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and that has long been the defence ministry's consistent view, Koo said, according to Liberty Times Net and Storm Media reports from the same briefing.

Lai's 10 October National Day speech said Taiwan cherishes peace, will not give up its freedom, and is investing in defence to deter war rather than to provoke. He also said China continues to press Taiwan through military and grey-zone activity in an attempt to change the status quo across the Strait.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office condemned the speech, accusing Lai of distorting facts, clinging to Taiwan independence thinking, and exaggerating the mainland threat. Chinese state media and mainland commentators further argued that Taiwan's rising defence outlays squeeze social spending and harm livelihoods, framing the budget rise as a separatist military buildup.

Taiwan has set aside a record package for defence in 2027, about NT$1.1 trillion, more than 3 percent of GDP according to international reporting of Lai's National Day remarks. Mainland commentary put the proposed 2027 figure near NT$1.12 trillion and near 4 percent of GDP while arguing the buildup would ultimately harm Taiwan's economy and divert money from social needs.

Koo's reply at the legislature ties that fiscal choice directly to deterrence rather than to any admission that threat assessments are inflated. He framed higher budgets as the practical means to raise self-defence strength so China cannot treat political pressure as a low-cost path to coerce Taipei into accepting a weaker posture.

Beijing's political attack on Taiwan's defence budget lands as Taipei continues to describe Chinese military and grey-zone pressure as the driver for readiness spending. Koo's framing puts deterrence first: spend enough to raise the cost of aggression, rather than accept the charge that describing Chinese pressure is itself provocation or that self-defence investment must yield to mainland political messaging.