Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Sept. 19 that Taiwan must strengthen its military and civilian resilience as threats from China intensify, arguing that greater preparedness is necessary to preserve peace and maintain the status quo.
Speaking at the opening of the 2026 Resilient Taiwan for Sustainable Democracy International Forum, Lai said, according to the Taiwan Presidential Office, that more than 500 experts and guests from Taiwan and abroad had gathered to discuss climate change, gray-zone aggression and geopolitical risks.
Lai said democratic countries should cooperate as authoritarian governments attempt to create fear and division.
“Peace depends on strength, strength depends on resilience, and resilience depends on unity,” Lai said.
Civilian and military resilience
Lai pointed to Taiwan’s recent Han Kuang military exercises and Urban Resilience Exercises as examples of efforts to strengthen cooperation between the military, civilian agencies and the public.
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This year, Taiwan introduced a mobile internet slowdown exercise affecting about 17 million people, the Presidential Office said in its account of Lai’s remarks. The drill allowed participants to practice using backup communication methods in the event of mobile network disruptions.
The Urban Resilience Exercises were also conducted alongside the Han Kuang exercises, allowing civilian government agencies at the central and local levels to train simultaneously under the same scenarios.
Lai said defending Taiwan was not solely the military’s responsibility and that people could contribute regardless of their occupation, ethnicity, gender or age.
The exercises involved active-duty forces, about 20,000 reservists and nearly 10,000 civilian government employees. Lai described them as the largest joint military-civilian exercises in Taiwan’s history, according to the official transcript of his remarks.
Defense spending to exceed NT$1 trillion
Lai said Taiwan’s defense budget has doubled over the past decade as the government seeks to strengthen the island’s self-defense capabilities.
For 2027, the government has proposed overall defense spending of NT$1.1225 trillion, exceeding NT$1 trillion for the first time and keeping spending above three percent of GDP. The government expects defense spending to reach five percent of GDP by 2030, according to figures provided by the Taiwan Presidential Office.
Lai said Taiwan intends to strengthen its self-defense capabilities and “safeguard peace through strength.”
The forum also addressed whole-of-society resilience, civil-military cooperation, psychological defense and international resilience partnerships. Participants included Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey, Japanese lawmaker Hirofumi Takinami and former Philippine national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.
The Presidential Office’s official participant list also names former U.S. deputy national security advisers Matt Pottinger and Anne Neuberger. This differs from the original translated draft, which listed Matthew Kroenig.
Lai said Taiwan would continue drawing on international experience while strengthening its own preparations.
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