Former army corporal Hung Chung-chiu’s (洪仲丘) death in 2013 sparked public outrage as people were appalled by the inappropriate discipline in the military.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets with the intention of making the management of the nation’s army safer and more efficient.
Then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) responded to the growing public anger by abolishing the Military Trial Act (軍事審判法) in a rush.
The US, leader of the world’s democracies, still has military tribunals, because military discipline is the root of military power and the survival of a nation.
Perhaps for Ma, it is better for Taiwan to not have the ability to defend itself, so that he can achieve the “peaceful unification” that he desires.
However, Taiwanese should understand that peace requires solid war preparation. This discourages aggressors, and an important part of this is military discipline.
Over the past few years, Taiwanese have gradually come to realize that they were too quick to call for the abolition of military trials — which had nothing to do with Hung’s death — and that the lack of it has done great damage to the nation’s security.
The US has also repeatedly reminded Taiwan of this danger.
A report titled Latest feasibility evaluation of the restoration of the Military Trial Act was released by the Ministry of National Defense, with Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) expressing public support for the restoration of the Military Trial Act.
Most politicians in Taiwan have been silent when it comes to military trials for fear of offending Hung’s supporters.
However, the international situation is changing and the issue of Taiwan’s defense is becoming even more important.
It is not only the Taiwanese who are attaching more importance to bolstering the nation’s defense capabilities. Neighboring allied countries are watching Taiwan’s performance as well.
National security should not be sacrificed for the sake of politics.
Hung’s case happened more than 10 years ago. There is no reason for amendments to be met with much criticism or to be called a rushed policy reversal.
The Formosa Republican Association, of which I am the chairman, has held a seminar for the military affairs group of the “Taiwanese warrior promotion program,” inviting a number of retired generals and experts to discuss how to strengthen Taiwan’s defense capabilities. Once again, the experts brought up the significance of restoring military trials.
Today, as technology develops and diversity in society grows, ensuring proper military discipline is also becoming increasingly more difficult.
Taiwan’s judiciary is plagued by its own problems and its workload has been heavy due to numerous fraud cases. As a result, trials often span a very long period.
As the US continues to tighten its containment of China, Beijing’s urgency to annex the nation has increased as well. Chinese have even infiltrated the military.
Given these factors, the need to reinstate the Military Trial Act only grows stronger.
Tommy Lin is the chairman of the Formosa Republican Association.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017