Taiwan Controversially Raises Defense Spending Ahead of Trump's Second Term..."Even 5% of GDP is a nightmare".

With several countries nervous about reorganizing the international order, which has been announced with the launch of the "Second Trump," controversy over an increase in defense spending is intensifying in Taiwan.

During the campaign, President-elect Trump called for Taiwan to increase its defense spending to 10% of its gross domestic product (GDP), saying Taiwan should pay "protection costs," but it is also difficult to increase it to 5% right now.

Citing multiple experts, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) said the second Trump administration would not call on Taiwan to increase its GDP to 10%, but it would be difficult to ignore the bipartisan U.S. demand for a 5% increase.

Max Law, director of Taiwan's International Strategic Research Society (TISSS), a Taiwanese think tank, pointed out that Taiwan's dependence on the U.S. has grown as China considers him a "separatist" due to Mr. Lyinger's strong independence streak.The director to

also added that U.S. expectations for Taiwan's defense spending were 3% of GDP in the 2000s but have recently risen to 5% of GDP.

Taiwan's defense spending has continued to decline since peaking at 77.4% of the government's budget in 1951, the early days of former President Chiang Kai-shek's rule, which was defeated following a defeat in the civil war.

Then, in 2017, the year after former President Tsai Ing-wen took office, the defense budget increased from 2% of GDP to 2.45% last year.

But next year's defense budget, drawn up by the Leichtinger government, is 2.56% of GDP, still below 3%.

On the other hand, Trump's aides are pressuring Taiwan, saying 5% of GDP is at a minimum.

Albridge Colby, a former deputy defense secretary who is considered a candidate for Trump's second ministerial role in security, argued in an article in the Taipei Times in May that "defense spending at the level of 5% of GDP should be at the bottom," referring to the military imbalance between China and Taiwan.

The SCMP said both the U.S. ruling and opposition parties have the view that Taiwan should prepare to defend itself like Ukraine and Israel.

Ukraine, which is at war with Russia, spends 37% of its GDP on defense while Israel's defense budget accounts for 5.3% of its GDP.

The SCMP also pointed out that Taiwan (2.45%) is lower than South Korea (2.8%) and Singapore (2.7%) and only slightly above Britain (2.3%) and France (2.1%).

"In recent years, the DPP government has focused on infrastructure and welfare budgets to win voter support, making it difficult to increase the defense budget to 3%, let alone 5%,," Ro said.

"If Taiwan's defence spending rises to 5% or even 10% of GDP, it would be a nightmare scenario for the Leichtinger administration," he said.