TAIPEI, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Taiwanese people are at risk of becoming “numb” to China’s daily military and other pressure tactics to wear down the island, but the threat is real and greater readiness is needed, Defence Minister Wellington Koo said.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, sends its warplanes and warships into the skies and waters around the island on a daily basis. It held its latest war games near Taiwan in late December.
Speaking to reporters this week, in comments that were embargoed until Friday, Koo said over the past year, China has used military pressure, cyberattacks and psychological warfare against Taiwan through more “complex and precise actions.”
The number of detected Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and drones, rose 23% in 2025 from a year earlier, as China tries to push the narrative that the Taiwan Strait is an “internal” Chinese waterway, he added.
“When such actions are repeated over and over, we worry that it can easily numb the public,” Koo said. “But in fact, this kind of enemy threat exists urgently and realistically.”
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
While Taiwan will neither escalate nor provoke, its military is strengthening its preparedness by carrying out combat-oriented exercises, increasing the effectiveness of its reserve forces and boosting purchases of new weapons, he added.
The ministry is also looking at how to use emerging technologies like artificial intelligence for military purposes with its new defence innovation team, Koo said.
Mentioning an ongoing issue with delayed deliveries of U.S. weapons due to supply chain and capacity problems, Koo said production has “gradually returned to normal,” while the U.S. is making the administrative process for purchases easier and quicker.
But Taiwan’s opposition, which has a majority in Parliament, has stalled President Lai Ching-te’s proposed $40 billion in extra defence spending, and has instead advanced its own proposal which is much smaller and does not fund all the U.S. arms purchases.
Koo said that investing in defence is investing in peace and that senior military officers, including Strategic Planning Director Huang Wen-chi, have been meeting with members of the media and talking to lawmakers to explain the government’s spending plans.
“Facing today’s rapidly changing international situation and increasingly complex security environment, we firmly believe that only by helping ourselves can others help us; national security must be held in our own hands,” he said.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
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