Taiwan’s record defense spending must be accompanied by broader economic and societal sacrifices if it is to effectively deter China, according to a U.S. security expert.

The comments come as Taiwan proposes spending more than NT$1 trillion on defense in 2027, while the Cabinet last week proposed an additional NT$145.7 billion for defense this year.

Speaking at a Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club event in Taipei on Tuesday, September 8, Stanford University’s Indo-Pacific Policy Lab Director Oriana Skylar Mastro said higher spending and investment in asymmetric capabilities were important. But she said effectively strengthening Taiwan’s security would require “making some tough decisions and making some sacrifices.”

“Everything has to be about the defense and resilience and security of Taiwan,” she said, contrasting that approach with what she described as Europe’s prioritization of “prosperity over security.”

Mastro commented on Taiwan’s male-only conscription system, saying the country has to “be more serious and be like the Israelis, and actually train everyone to resist and to fight.”

Also speaking at the event, King’s College London Professor of War and Strategy in East Asia Alessio Patalano said Taiwan should prioritize undersea capabilities, resilient communications, and a more integrated national security strategy.

He said that the KMT’s strategy of seeking communication and engagement with Beijing “should not be equal to a strategy of hope, because a strategy of hope is no strategy at all.”