Taiwan has been reforming its military since 2000, recognizing that decades of  apathy had allowed many bad habits to form. China's growing defense budget, and occasional calls for taking Taiwan by force, has energized the reform movement. But Taiwan's defense budget has also been declining. There is pressure to buy anti-missile systems, but these are expensive, relatively untried and only available from the US. OK, the Russians say they have anti-missile systems, but these are even more unproven.