Days after Taiwan’s defence minister expressed concerns that China could launch a “full scale” invasion as early as 2025, Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen said that the country does not seek military confrontation but will do whatever it takes to defend itself. According to the Reuters news agency, Ing-wen made the statement on Friday, amid high tensions in the country over the latest hostile policies initiated by Beijing and the Xi Jinping-led regime ramping up its military might in recent years.

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China claims the democratic island of Taiwan as its own territory and says it should be taken by force if necessary. Taiwan resists, saying it is an independent country and will defend its freedoms and democracy in the face of China’s aggression.

Beijing seems to have aggravated its hostile policies in recent days, with a record number of Chinese military aircraft repeatedly flying over Taiwan’s air defence identification zone throughout the week. Taiwan’s radars spotted as many as 150 Chinese air force aircraft entered its air defence zone, part of a pattern of what Taipei calls Beijing’s continued harassment of the island.

On Wednesday, Taiwan’s defence minister Chiu Kuo-cheng, while replying to a lawmaker’s question in the country’s parliament, said that military tensions with China are at their worst in more than 40 years. He noted that there was an added risk of “misfire” across the sensitive Taiwan Strait; and that while China already has the required arsenal to take Taiwan by force, the cost of a “full scale” war for Beijing might be at its lowest by 2025, when a potential invasion seems likely.

Meanwhile, Taiwan is doing whatever it can to defend itself. The government has introduced a plan, currently under parliamentary review, for special military spending of T$240 billion ($8.6 billion) for homemade weapons including missiles and warships. Over the next five years, the country plans to invest mostly in naval weapons – including anti-ship weapons such as land-based missile systems.

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The United States, Taiwan’s main military supplier, has confirmed its “rock-solid” commitment to Taiwan and also criticised China. A small number of US special operations forces have also been rotating into Taiwan on a temporary basis to carry out training of military forces, the Reuters news agency reported citing two people familiar with the matter, on the strict condition of anonymity. The Pentagon, which historically has not disclosed details about US training or advising of Taiwanese forces, did not specifically comment on or confirm the deployment.

The United States is Taiwan’s largest supplier of weaponry and has long offered some degree of training on weapons systems, as well as detailed advice on ways to strengthen its military to guard against an invasion by China’s Peoples Liberation Army. Beijing, on the other hand, blames Washington’s policies of supporting Taiwan with arms sales and sending warships through the Taiwan Strait for raising tensions.

(With inputs from agencies)