Taiwan

Despite the global conflict on whether Taiwan is a separate state or a part of China, it certainly lies on the doorstep of the massive communist state and therefore needs a top-notch defense to keep it safe. Interestingly, the armed forces inside the country are called the Republic of China Armed Forces and are employed by China.

Even though this force includes about 300k personnel active at all times, almost 1.6 million people are reserved for action. When considering the actively serving and those in reserve combined, the Taiwanese military is the eighth largest on the planet. It also took up a massive budget of $16.89 billion in 2022.