In the face of China’s rising threat of force, Taiwan plans to respond by boosting the reserve force in addition to strengthening the asymmetric combat capability of its standing army. Taiwan Defense Minister Yen Te-fa proposed a reserve reform plan in the Legislative Yuan on Thursday (Oct. 22), declaring that a “Defense Mobilization Agency” will be established and that the annual number of reservists called up for training will double to 268,000 starting in 2022. He said that a total of 450,000 active and reserve military personnel will be immediately put into the defense war as soon as the president’s mobilization order is issued.
In order to achieve the goal announced by President Tsai Ing-wen in his 520 speech of this year, “the formation of a permanent and reserve force as one,” Yen pointed out that starting next year, Taiwan is expected to select 760,000 men who have been discharged within eight years from the 2.31 million reservists, and expand their annual call-ups to nearly 270,000 men, with each man called up for training four times in eight years at most, and each call-up’s duration extended from the current 5-7 days to 14 days, in order to strengthen their three capabilities of “beach defense and enemy annihilation,” “urban combat,” and “protection of important military targets,” as well as to improve their joint combat capability with 180,000 active-duty soldiers.
Taiwan’s reserve combat force reform
The reform plan proposed by the Ministry of National Defense is a comprehensive review and refinement of the five major aspects, such as the adjustment of the command organization of the reserve forces, the construction of the army, the future organization and management, the training content and weapons and equipment.
In addition, Yim De-Fat said that in order to motivate morale, the reserve’s salary will be raised 1.5 times, and new medical benefits will be added. In addition, it is also important to note that the number of people who have been in the military for more than eight years and have not been called up in the past will be increased.
This reform proposal, KMT legislator and KMT Chairman Jiang Qichen first questioned the actual combat power of the phased mobilization.
He said: “If there is a real war, it is impossible to phase it in with you, (so that you can) mobilize the north (war zone) tomorrow and the south (war zone) the day after tomorrow. Once the war starts, the whole (to) mobilize, the problem is, you don’t have the whole to mobilize now.”
Yan De-Fa replied: “Usually it’s segmented in the move, (Jiang) President just directed, we have to consider the social order and people’s panic, that we have to evaluate in the future, see how to increase it.”
Tensions between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are rising, and Taiwan society has gradually formed a consensus on raising the reserve force, but opinions on where to start the review and how to reform and implement the system are divided among political parties in the government and academia in Taiwan.
The constant calls for conscription
In an interview with the Voice of America, Luo Qingsheng, CEO of the Taiwan International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that although Taiwan claims to have 2 million reservists, the weakness of the war effort is the result of long-term neglect, in addition, the reservists’ willingness to cooperate is not high, the training itself is not solid, reduced to a formality, “simply can not meet the requirements of the war effort to recover or restore certain combat skills. ” He said that is why the U.S. assessment of Taiwan’s reserve force is so poor.
As for the reform plan for the Ministry of National Defense’s reserve force, Luo believes that if Taiwan does not change back to the conscription system in which all service men have to perform compulsory military service, in 10 years’ time at the latest, only those who have served four months of military training will be left in the reserve force, and no reform will be feasible in the face of such a weak reserve force.
Luo Qingsheng said, “Without conscription as a foundation, the reforms you do now to teach the military are all empty. He said that military preparedness is a serious matter, and there are no shortcuts, and it is impossible to “make the horses good and not eat grass.
Since 1950, Taiwan has implemented a military service system in which men are required to perform two to three years of compulsory service. However, with the restructuring, the military service was unified for 2 years in 1990 and shortened to 1 year and 10 months in 2000. With the implementation of the Army Precision Program and the Professional Recruitment System, the length of military service for conscripted men was shortened to one year in 2008 and to four months in 2013. At present, according to the Ministry of National Defense’s estimation, the last generation of men who have served one year will all be discharged in 2025, and by then, Taiwan’s real main fighting force will come from nearly 190,000 professional volunteers, which is of high quality but too small in quantity, thus leading to calls for strengthening the reserve fighting force.
However, the current reservists generally reject the call to duty. A 2018 survey report by the Taiwan Supervisory Institute found that the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense totaled nearly 80,000 call-ups between 2015 and 2018, but more than 70% of the reservists cited going abroad as a reason to avoid returning to training, and another about 2% preferred to be transferred to justice rather than return to training, highlighting the depth of Taiwan’s long-standing reserve combat power malpractice.
Although recent polls in Taiwan show that up to 70% to 80% of respondents are willing to fight to protect Taiwan if Taiwan’s pursuit of independence triggers China’s use of force, this subjective willingness still falls far short of the actual combat participation and combat capability.
In addition to academics such as Luo Qingsheng, there are also many other people in the private sector and the KMT who have echoed the backlash against conscription and even advocated for women to join the military.
However, this proposal involves many issues such as law revision, a huge budget for regular military support, and military readiness, and is politically difficult.
It is more pragmatic to enhance the existing reserve combat capability
Therefore, in terms of pragmatism, DPP legislators Luo Zhizheng and Wang Dingyu are pleased to see the Ministry of National Defense carry out the reform of the reserve force.
In an interview with the Voice of America, Luo Zhizheng said that there is no problem with the Ministry of National Defense’s plan in terms of the two goals of improving the reserve force, but how it is implemented and the content of the training is the key.
The first is to deter the other side from starting a war, because it (the PLA) will think that even if it defeats Taiwan, but (if it ascends the island), whether it’s guerrilla warfare, whether it’s street warfare, etc., it’s going to be very costly, in other words, it’s going to bite Taiwan, but it’s not going to eat it,” he said. The second is to buy more time.”
Taiwan’s strategic depth is too short, Luo said, as long as the war starts, the whole island is the front line, and there is no big rear party to support. Therefore, if the reserve force can be significantly increased, in addition to the usual effective deterrent to the PLA to start a war, it can also buy more time in wartime, waiting for other countries such as the United States to come to the rescue.
However, he believes that, in terms of training content, the reserve force should strengthen the town guarding force, which is something Taiwan has rarely focused on before.
The DPP legislator Wang Dingyu described the reform proposal of the Ministry of National Defense as “an opportunity for change.
He said, as far as the source of troops is concerned, Taiwan will never waste training resources on new recruits who have only served four months of military training, therefore, he analyzed, Taiwan’s real reserve force will come from the real “ready to fight”, about 200,000 to 400,000 members of the reserve elite, and the future source of troops will mainly consist of 1-2 million professional volunteer soldiers discharged each year. to supplement. He said that, after actuarial calculations, this could be balanced, so that there would not be a significant shortage of troops in the future, and the force would be the strongest.
Retreating First to Maintain First-Class War Power
Wang Dingyu believes that under the principle of “retire first,” that is, those who have just retired from the military because of their combat skills and strength, priority is given to the principle of inclusion in the reserve army, Taiwan’s reserve force should be able to gradually return to a level of combat power, and if the implementation is effective, the rapid mobilization can be completed within 24 hours.
He told the Voice of America: “The future reserves also have the ability to fly (F-16) fighters, which (is) a Tier 1 capability. If needed, (they) will have to report to their designated units within 24 hours, which means, within 24 hours, our active-duty military will have to multiply and belong to different combat readiness positions, (which means) the mobilization system will have to get it right.”
Wang Dingyu said that Taiwan will actively learn from other countries in the future, including the U.S. states’ National Guard system, Switzerland, Israel, or Singapore’s training methods, which Taiwan will refer to in order to review and further strengthen Taiwan’s reserve combat capability at any time.
Alexander Neill, a former senior fellow at the Shangri-La Forum, said that Taiwan’s military preparedness would be reviewed and further strengthened. Alexander Neill, a former senior fellow at the Shangri-La Forum, said in an interview with the Voice of America that, in addition to the U.S. National Guard system, Taiwan can also refer to the British Territorial Army, which is a reserve force, but it is a group of part-time soldiers with higher combat skills and capabilities. Employers have to have a high enough incentive to retain these part-time fighters. Neal said that if Taiwan can restore the conscription system or extend the compulsory service period, there will be sufficient military resources after 10 years; if not, a hybrid system between recruitment and conscription will have to be developed; therefore, part-time military systems such as those in the U.K. and the U.S. have a high degree of reference for Taiwan.
Since 2017, Taiwan has also started to implement the “reserve soldier” system, also commonly known as “weekend soldier”, which allows civilians with regular jobs to familiarize themselves with the operation of weapons and equipment by joining the battalion two days a month, participating in military drills once a year, and spending at least 29 days in the battalion throughout the year, so that they can play a ready-to-combat role in times of war.
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