Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on Friday announced a new, multilayered air defense network, dubbed the “T-Dome,” as his government accelerates development of indigenous defense systems amid growing military pressure from China.
Why It Matters
China claims Taiwan as its territory and has sharply increased military activity around the island, including seven large-scale exercises over the past five years, to pressure Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party government.
In response, Taipei has extended mandatory military service from four months to one year, boosted arms purchases from its top supplier, the United States, and modestly raised defense spending—measures that have met stiff resistance from opposition lawmakers.
What To Know
“We will accelerate our construction of the T-Dome, establish a rigorous air defense system with multi-layered defenses, high-level detection, and effective interception, and weave a safety net to protect the lives and property of our citizens,” Lai said in a speech marking Taiwan’s National Day holiday.
He added that the initiative will incorporate artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies to build a “smart defense combat system,” designed to strengthen deterrence under Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare strategy—one focused on defending against a larger adversary with precision and mobility rather than military parity.
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, has governed itself since 1949 after the mainland was taken over by communist forces. Today it functions as a de facto sovereign state with its own military, elected government, and foreign relations, though Beijing insists it remains part of China.
Taiwan’s defense spending currently stands at about 2.5 percent of GDP but will surpass 3 percent next year and reach 5 percent by 2030, Lai said. Some Trump administration officials have urged Taipei to allocate as much as 10 percent of GDP to defense, a proposal Taiwan has resisted.
Despite recent investments, the military gap with China continues to widen as Beijing continues to expand its vast missile arsenal and conduct near-daily incursions across the Taiwan Strait—previously a de facto boundary largely respected by both the Taiwanese and Chinese militaries.
Lai’s speech came a day after Taiwan’s defense ministry released its 2025 National Defense Report, which said this year has seen the highest frequency and duration of Chinese military flights in the Taiwan Strait. From February through August, total PLA sorties exceeded 495, a figure unmatched during that same period in 2023 or 2024.
Over those same seven months, flights crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line ranged from 278 to 325 per month. In 2024, only July and August reached similar levels; in 2023, no months saw such levels of activity.
“The military must uphold the spirit of ‘combat-readiness at all times, battle on demand,’ focus on constructing asymmetric warfare capabilities, and reinforce joint combat readiness,” Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng was quoted as saying by the report.
What People Have Said
Bryce Barros, a security analyst and associate fellow at the think tank GLOBSEC, told Newsweek that Lai’s speech “served as a message to Washington that his administration is taking their concerns about defense spending seriously and wants to show that Taiwan could handle defending itself if needed.
“His remarks remind me of similar sentiments expressed by other U.S. allies, specifically President Lee of South Korea and Chancellor Merz of Germany, who both emphasized in remarks over the last year that their countries need to be more self-reliant when it comes to defense issues.”
What’s Next
It remains unclear when the T-Dome will be fully operational.
Lai’s announcement coincides with ongoing trade negotiations with the Trump administration and comes as Taiwan—the world’s top supplier of advanced semiconductors—seeks to balance ties with its third-largest export market and with an increasingly complex security environment.
