As the Ministry of National Defense continues to struggle to meet recruitment targets for an all-volunteer force, lawmakers across party lines have said they are concerned about the effect the recruitment drives are having on the armed forces’ image.
Under the ministry’s timetable, the armed forces should have enough volunteers to staff 90 percent of positions by the end of the year, the state-run Military News Agency said on March 22.
It is 17,000 enlistments short of that goal, the report said.
The pressure to meet recruitment goals has prompted some military units to adopt inventive recruiting methods, the report said.
Some of those methods have been criticized as undignified.
One air force battalion commander personally led recruiters on an enlistment drive in the Old Street area of New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水).
Several units allegedly disseminated photographs of attractive female military personnel on social media as a recruiting tool, but some of the women complained of online harassment, while critics panned use of social media as detrimental to the military’s reputation.
The armed forces have been hard-pressed to find recruits since the all-volunteer program’s rollout, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said.
Strange recruiting tactics are a consequence of the ministry’s erroneous policy putting the onus of meeting goals on field units, which has led to some unit commanders being givin recruitment quotas, the lawmaker said.
“Troop recruitment should have been the sole responsibility of the National Armed Forces Recruitment Center and not a concern for the rest of the military,” he said. “These publicity stunts degrade the solemnity of military service. Our soldiers should not be turned into insurance salespeople peddling products.”
The ministry should rely on proven methods to recruit qualified volunteers and avoid fixating on quantitative metrics while neglecting quality, he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) said the recruitment stunts objectified women and had harmed the image of the armed forces.
“The military is suffering from shortages of volunteer soldiers and officers because pay and benefits are not attractive,” she said.
A military career also entails the loss of personal freedoms that many young people find unpalatable, Ko said.
“To inspire patriotism, the ministry must burnish the image and values of the armed forces and ensure that soldiering is a well-compensated and honorable profession,” she said. “Young people need to see that joining the military makes them part of a proud, select elite before we can ask them to join.”
Army Commander General Wang Shin-lung (王信龍) on Friday told a panel reviewing recruitment policies that the military is committed to keeping field units’ focus on operational capabilities and training.
Commanders and ministry officials should strive to maintain the positive image of soldiers, while recruiting efforts should focus on the dedication to defend the nation against aggression, Wang said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS