The Trump administration's nominee to lead the Pentagon's decision-making for the Indo-Pacific region says he "strongly supports" US President Donald Trump's calls for Taiwan to increase its defense spending to 10% of GDP.
00:00The nominee to lead the Pentagon's decision-making on the Indo-Pacific region is grilled by U.S. senators at his confirmation hearing and reveals steep expectations for Taiwan's defense spending.
00:11I strongly believe that Taiwan needs to do its part and to pay and to increase its defense spending.
00:19That's twice the amount that President Lai Qingde has pledged to spend on defense, announcing in August that he would push it up to 5 percent of GDP before 2030, as Taiwan faces continuous pressure from the U.S. to raise its budget amid heightened tensions with China,
00:49which claims Taiwan and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the country under its control.
00:55Responding to Noh's comments, Taiwan's defense ministry stayed strong on its 5 percent goal.
01:10The 10 percent demand, experts say, is unrealistic.
01:19But already, Taiwan's push to increase defense spending is facing difficulties.
01:37The legislature is at a stalemate over the proposed budget for next year, which includes a defense budget of more than 3 percent GDP, a sharp increase from this year.
01:48It's facing pushback from some opposition lawmakers, who are rejecting the entire budget proposal because it fails to include pay raises for soldiers.
01:56Legislators from both of Taiwan's major parties say they support increasing defense spending, but opposition parties made major cuts and freezes on this year's budget, meaning Taiwan's government could have an uphill battle ahead of them, as pressure from Washington to spend more on the military becomes even greater.
02:14Hank Xu, Patrick Chen, Alan Lu, and Cadence Quaranta for Taiwan Plus.
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