On a related note, Taiwan’s 2022 defense spending amounted to only 1.6 percent of GDP while China’s more opaque spending added up to 3.8 percent of its much larger economy, according to US government assessments.12 Taiwan did increase defense spending to more than 2 percent for 2023 and 2024, but Taipei should spend proportionally at least as much as the United States (3.5 percent of GDP).
