In May 2025, ROC President Lai Ching-te allegedly mentioned during an internal cybersecurity meeting that “2027 is the point when the Mainland will possess the capability for full military unification.” After this comment was reported by the media, the domestic public sphere instantly plunged into a familiar collective hysteria: social media was filled with clickbait articles titled “The CCP is Going to Attack in 2027,” talking heads took turns exaggerating the “sense of national peril,” and Green camp surrogates and some cyber troops began widely labeling dissenters as “surrenderists,” “CCP kissers,” and “red infiltration,” with calls to “purchase more weapons,” “extend military service,” and “mobilize all citizens” quickly drowning out all rational discussion.
However, in less than 48 hours, Lai Ching-te’s office was forced to issue a clarification: it was a “media misreport,” and the original intent was only to warn about cybersecurity threats and defense preparedness, without setting a specific year.
The entire incident resembled a carefully rehearsed farce, yet it so accurately reflected the cruelest aspect of contemporary politics—that fear is the sharpest tool of power, and “end-times prophecies” are always the most effective machine for manufacturing fear.
I. The Structural Violence of the End-Times Narrative
When a specific year (1999, 2012, 2027…) is endowed with the meaning of “the world is about to end,” the most primitive survival mechanism in the human brain is activated: adrenaline surges, rationality shuts down, and tribal instincts are fully resurrected. At this point, anyone who questions the veracity of the “prophecy” is automatically classified by the tribe as a “traitor” or “one who sides with the enemy,” and must be publicly shamed and expelled so that the remaining members can feel the illusion that “we can be saved if we unite.”
This mechanism has been repeatedly verified over two millennia in religious history: the Christian “Last Judgment,” the countless “exact dates of Armageddon” set by Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the “UFO rescue at the end of the world” claimed by new cults, all rely without exception on the standard process of “giving a specific year → creating collective anxiety → identifying internal heretics → demanding followers sacrifice everything.” The only difference is that in the past, the sacrifice was property and soul, and now it is defense spending, military service length, and freedom of speech.
Lai Ching-te’s mention of “2027,” whether intentional or not, precisely stepped on this ancient button. Thus, we saw: people questioning the necessity of military purchases were labeled “surrenderists”; retired military officers opposing the one-year extension of compulsory military service were doxxed; even netizens who posted on Facebook, “In 1975, Chiang Ching-kuo also said the Communist army would attack Taiwan within three years, and what happened?” were attacked until they shut down their page. The structural violence of the end-times narrative lies in making “questioning” itself the original sin.
II. When Fear Becomes the Perpetual Motion Machine of the Defense Budget
Over the past decade, Taiwan’s military budget has soared from NT$318.7 billion in 2016 to NT$606.9 billion in 2025, with the 2026 allocation reaching NT$646.8 billion—nearly doubling. Behind every dramatic increase, there is an end-times prophecy with a “specific year” providing justification:
- 2019 was the “2020 National Security Crisis Year”
- 2021 was the “2025 Mainland Military Unification Timeline”
- 2023 was the US think tank CSIS’s “2026 Most Dangerous Year”
- 2025 is the turn of the “2027 Lai Ching-te Version”
These years are like products on an assembly line; as soon as one expires, the next one immediately fills its place. And every time the “Doomsday countdown” is activated, the defense budget, special regulations, and military procurement cases can bypass all budgetary rules and oversight mechanisms in the name of “saving the nation.” When fear becomes the norm, those who question the rationality of the budget naturally become traitors who “hinder national defense” and “save the Communist army bullets.”
More cruelly, this fear-based economics has long been internalized as a cross-party consensus. The Blue camp, when in opposition, also shouted about the “sense of national peril in 2025,” and when in power, they still allocated special budgets to buy submarines; the Green camp simply performs the same script more professionally, more emotionally, and is better at utilizing social media bullying. End-times prophecies never discriminate by color; they only serve power and profit.
III. Why Has Christianity Been Able to Deceive for Two Thousand Years?
Finally, let’s return to the harsh but true question: “No wonder this deceptive thing called Christianity has been able to prevail in human history for 2,000 years.”
The answer is simple: because it has never been about selling “God,” but about selling the combination punch of “end-times fear” and the “redemption formula.” You give me fear (the world is about to be destroyed), and I sell you the antidote (believe in me, donate money, preach, shun heretics), and you will be saved. The brilliance of this business model lies in the fact that fear is a renewable resource—the world has not been destroyed time and time again in the prophecies, but the next prophecy can always find a new year, a new Antichrist, and new signs of the end.
Will there be war in 2027? Maybe yes, maybe no. But what is certain is that as long as the end-times narrative can effectively drive military spending, suppress dissent, and deflect domestic policy failures, it will continue to be produced, upgraded, and assigned new years. Because for some people, whether Taiwan will actually be unified by force in 2027 has never been the main point; the key point is that this narrative must not be allowed to expire before it can continue to harvest fear, harvest budgets, and harvest power.
And we, the people trapped on this island, ultimately have to ask ourselves a cruel question: after being held hostage by a “specific year” time and time again, are we truly preparing for war, or are we being perpetually held hostage by fear?