Taiwan's president released a video message for Lunar New Year, affirming increased efforts to strengthen national security in order to counter China's persistent claim of sovereignty over the island.
On Sunday, 15 Feb 2026 GMT+7, President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan delivered a Lunar New Year speech, stating that Taiwan will intensify its efforts to defend and secure its territory over the coming year amid rising pressure from mainland China.
In 2025, Lai proposed increasing the defense budget by 40 billion U.S. dollars to counterbalance China’s power. However, the opposition, which holds the parliamentary majority, refused to consider the proposal and instead presented their own budget with lower spending, allocating only a fraction of the funds Lai requested for arms purchases from the United States.
In his Sunday speech at Hsiaohsuehshan radar station, one of Taiwan’s most important military radar sites in the central mountain range, Lai expressed his gratitude to the military for protecting Taiwan around the clock.
“We will continue to advance efforts in national defense and public security, protecting national security and maintaining social stability,” the Taiwanese leader stated in a video posted on his social media account. The video also showed footage of Taiwan’s first domestically developed submarine, currently undergoing underwater testing.
China condemned Lai as a “separatist” for rejecting China’s sovereignty claim over Taiwan. China has consistently asserted that Taiwan is part of its territory to be reunified one day, and has not ruled out using military force to achieve this goal.
At the end of December 2025, China conducted large-scale military exercises around Taiwan as a response to the United States’ announcement of an 11.1 billion U.S. dollar arms sale package to Taiwan.
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Source:cna