TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te on Friday pledged to accelerate the building of a “T-Dome” air defense system in the face of the threat from China.
Lai said his government would establish
a rigorous defense system with high-level detection and effective interception.
The T-Dome, or Taiwan Dome, was an apparent reference to the Iron Dome system that Israel has developed.
Lai, speaking at a Taiwan National Day celebration, also pledged to increase defense spending to more than 3% of GDP and to reach 5% by 2030. GDP, or gross domestic product, is a measure of the size of the overall economy.
Taiwan is a self-governing island off China's east coast that the Chinese government claims as its territory and says must come under its rule.
Lai called Taiwan a “hub of peace and stability” in the Indo-Pacific region, drawing a distinction with China’s one-party state.
“Democratic Taiwan ... will strive to maintain the status quo, protect peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and promote regional prosperity and development,” Lai said.
China and Taiwan split during a civil war that brought the Communist Party to power in China in 1949. The defeated Nationalist Party forces fled to Taiwan, where they set up their own government.
The Chinese military regularly sends fighter jets and warships into the skies and waters off Taiwan and has staged major military exercises in the area in recent years.
The United States, like most countries, does not recognize Taiwan as a country, but it supplies the government with military equipment for its defense and opposes any use of military force by China to settle its dispute with Taiwan.
