Taiwan-China Cross-Strait Tensions

Taiwan Debates Defense Budget Increase as US Warns of Rising China Threat

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What did US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discuss on their November 24 phone call? A White House statement made no mention of Taiwan, while a Chinese readout quoted Xi as calling Taiwan’s return to China “integral” and Trump as saying the US “understood” the Chinese position. Meanwhile, a US official has warned that with China’s military capacity growing quickly, the US and Taiwan are “losing warning time.” To address these multiplying threats from Beijing — including the new Fujian aircraft carrier — Washington has called on Taipei to hike its military spending. In response, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te released an op-ed in the Washington Post pledging a historic US$40 billion supplemental defense budget. How likely is a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invasion by 2027? And how should Taipei allocate its budget to counter this threat? In this episode, we discuss the Trump-Xi phone call, China’s military capabilities and Taiwan’s budget. *Recorded on November 23, 2025 at 11:00am Taiwan Standard Time Host: Ethan Liu Producer: Chinyeh Chiang Our guests: Guermantes Lailari - Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR) Visiting Scholar - Retired US Air Force Foreign Area Officer Shen Ming-shih - Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR) Research Fellow