Taiwan needs to hike defence spending to 10 of GDP says Pentagon nominee

WASHINGTON - Taiwan needs to dramatically hike defence spending to around 10 per cent of gross domestic product in order to deter a war with China, President Donald Trump’s nominee to become a top Pentagon policy adviser said on March 4.

Mr Elbridge Colby, the nominee to become undersecretary of defence for policy, admonished Taiwan for doing too little now, saying its defence spending was “well below” 3 per cent of GDP.

“They should be more like 10 per cent, or at least something in that ballpark, really focused on their defence. So we need to properly incentivise them,” Mr Colby said, at his Senate confirmation hearing.

The remarks come as tensions climb between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, which edged deeper into a trade war on March 4 as China retaliated following steep tariffs imposed by Mr Trump.

China and the US are also competing for military influence in Asia.

For years, China has been steadily ramping up its military pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over the democratic, self-governed island that is home to a critical chip manufacturing vital to the global economy.

The US is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei.

Mr Colby told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Washington had important national security interests in Taiwan, even if the island’s status was not “existential” to the US.

“Losing Taiwan, Taiwan’s fall, would be a disaster for American interests,” Mr Colby said.

He cautioned the military balance of power between China and the US had “deteriorated dramatically” in China’s favour. Reversing that trend would be among his top priorities.

“It would be essentially my number one, or one of my very top priorities, if confirmed, to try to