Tsai can only blame herself for Taiwan's troubles

Taiwan has reportedly upgraded its indigenous defense with a newly developed cruise missile tailor-made for strikes on coastal targets on the mainland. It is also reportedly anxious to develop its own attack submarines.

The island's leader Tsai Ing-wen has also proposed hiking the 2019 defense budget by 5.6 percent, raising the island's annual military spending from 1.9 percent to 2.16 percent of local GDP.

Yet knowing the limitations of her attempts at boosting the island's "defense self-sufficiency", Tsai is working on multiple fronts to bolster her resistance against the mainland.