Taiwan's Defense Spending Boost, China's Peace Mission

0:00On March 31st, Taiwan's president, Lai Qingte, wants to pump $40 billion into extra defense spending to stand stronger against China, which claims the island as its own. The U.S. backs the plan fully, but it's stuck right now in the opposition-controlled parliament. Opposition leaders say they're all for beefing up defenses in principle, but they won't rubber-stam blank checks without real oversight. Lay argues it's essential to counter Beijing's growing threats, a bipartisan U.S. Senate team, including Republican Tom Tillis and Democrat Jean Shaheen, just met with Lai and dropped a strong warning. They pointed to Hong Kong as a wake-up call, once semi-autonomous under Chinese rule since 1997, but crushed by a national security. Law in 2020 that killed our freedoms. Meanwhile, on the same day as that meeting, China invited Cheng Li-Wun, head of Taiwan's biggest opposition party, the Kuomintang, for a visit to Beijing next week. She calls it a peace mission. Taiwan's government fired back, saying China's goal to take over the island hasn't budged

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