(Adnkronos) – A new air defense system for Taiwan. ‘Made in Taiwan’, it’s called ‘T-Dome’. The project announcement came from President Lai Ching-te (William Lai). The stated goal is to defend the island’s territory, which is de facto independent and claims its democracy, but which China considers a “rebel province” to be “reunified” without excluding the use of force.
“We will accelerate the implementation of the T-Dome,” he assured, without going into details. He spoke of “a rigorous air defense system” and “a safety net” for the island’s inhabitants. He reiterated that Taipei “is determined to maintain peace through strength,” to “build a solid line of defense to safeguard the values of freedom and democracy.” The invitation to Beijing, which is increasing political and military pressure on the island, is to “renounce the use of force or recourse to coercion to change the ‘status quo’ in the Taiwan Strait.”
Lai, who has the United States ‘breathing down his neck’, in his speech on the occasion of the National Day, confirmed the goal of increasing defense spending to over 3% of GDP by 2026 and to 5% by 2030. Taiwan has been accused by Donald Trump of not spending enough on defense. And it is on the United States that the island, with a handful of allies in the world, relies, both for armaments and – historically – for support even in the absence of formal diplomatic relations.
The president, whom Beijing considers a “dangerous separatist”, wants to “strengthen” Taiwan’s military capabilities in the face of “enemy threats” and insists on the importance of “demonstrating determination to safeguard the country” and “integrating sophisticated technologies and artificial intelligence for an ‘intelligent’ defense system, maximizing effective deterrence for our asymmetric strategy”.
Faced with Lai’s announcements, experts are perplexed. “If the system is modeled on the Israeli one,” the Iron Dome, “it will require a significant budget” and “it won’t be easy,” commented political scientist Hung-Jen Wang of National Cheng Kung University, quoted by the BBC. “And the implementation of the T-Dome system will not happen quickly,” echoed Dennis Weng of Sam Houston State University, convinced that it is a message “clearly aimed at the United States” also because, in his opinion, the system’s implementation is impossible to complete during Lai’s term.
According to the South China Morning Post, even if Lai did not go into the details of the system, it would seem to reflect the Golden Dome, the missile defense project dear to Trump.
In any case, China’s anger was not long in coming. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing did not hesitate to tell journalists that Lai, with the ‘T-Dome’ announcement, “once again highlights his nature as a stubborn troublemaker” and “warmonger”.
The People’s Republic insists on the “one China principle”, considers Taiwan an “inalienable part of its territory” and criticizes any form of “external interference”.
