Over the past four years, the total personnel of the Republic of China (ROC) Armed Forces has steadily declined, dropping from 162,000 in 2019 to 152,000 as of June last year, with the staffing rate dropping from 88.57 percent in 2020 to just 82 percent last year.
According to the military’s own estimates, the main combat units with staffing rates below 80 percent include the army’s mechanized infantry, artillery units, armored cavalry units, tank units, anti-armor units and offshore island infantry units. It also includes the navy’s marine infantry battalions, tank battalions, artillery companies, garrison squadrons, transport vehicle squadrons, artillery vehicle squadrons, missile companies, various fleet units, tactical reconnaissance groups and Hai Feng special operations groups, as well as the air force’s air defense and missile units and the military police’s 202 command, the primary unit guarding the presidential office.
It is clear the ROC Armed Forces have reached a critical point where maintaining effective combat readiness is increasingly challenging.
Despite persistent labor shortages, the military is still expected to implement ambitious government policies, including establishing the ROC Navy Littoral Combatant Command (濱海作戰指揮部) by next year, filling positions within Taiwan’s 18 reserve brigades and expanding the size and scope of the military police.
Without the ability to increase overall personnel numbers, these initiatives would inevitably divert labor resources from existing units, further weakening already understaffed forces. This would result in more units existing only on paper, while being significantly weaker in practice.
For years the primary obstacle to military recruitment and retention has been the inability of the armed forces to match civilian pay and benefits. Despite this, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) has continuously refused to address this core issue.
Instead, it has implemented superficial policies such as relaxing tattoo restrictions and permitting re-enlistment applications one year after discharge. While these measures might provide minor relief, they are merely surface-level solutions that fail to address the deeper, more systemic issues.
I am confident that the opposition majority of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) welcome President William Lai’s (賴清德) pledge to increase the defense budget to 3 percent of GDP and appreciate his prompt response following the KMT caucus announcement of a series of military benefits proposals.
However, the core issue remains one of prioritization, and the opposition majority has clearly signaled that improving the benefits and treatment of service members must take precedence.
The KMT’s proposed military benefits legislation aims to significantly enhance financial support for military personnel, including increases in stipends for volunteer soldiers, combat units and conscripts, as well as special allowances for those stationed in outlying islands or mountainous areas. It also seeks to relax the eligibility criteria for retirement benefits and provide educational subsidies for children of retired officers ranked colonel and above.
The KMT’s proposed military benefits bill has been criticized by the ministry as being merely a political bargaining chip, but this criticism is unfair and irresponsible, and directly stems from the government’s long-standing neglect of the military’s core pay and benefits issues.
By failing to prioritize substantial pay and benefits increases and improvements, the government has continuously disappointed the nation’s service members. Had the administration responsibly allocated budgets toward these, legislative intervention would not have been necessary.
Facing severe national defense threats, improvements in military benefits cannot wait. The ROC Armed Forces must become a competitive and attractive institution capable of recruiting and retaining talented personnel, ensuring sufficient staffing to effectively operate defense systems and reduce the strain on existing service members. This would enable combat units to fully concentrate on their core responsibilities and training.
While the KMT is earnestly addressing the fundamental challenges that the military faces, recent misinformation spread by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) targeting the opposition’s oversight efforts on defense budgets have undermined Taiwan’s defense resolve.
Such actions, by maliciously coercing the opposition majority elected by the public to perform their oversight duty, are detrimental to the well-being of the nation’s democracy.
The KMT’s scrutiny of the military budget is guided by the principles of waste prevention and practical priorities. Official data shows that the opposition’s budget cuts this year were neither unprecedented nor the most significant.
From fiscal year 2020 to last year, the percentage that was cut from the defense budget was 1.9 percent, 1.36 percent, 1.35 percent, 1.42 percent and 1.38 percent, Legislative Yuan data shows.
For fiscal year 2025, the cut was only 1.01 percent, equivalent to NT$4.8 billion out of NT$476 billion (US$145.7 million out of US$14.4 billion).
Indeed, DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), coconvener of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for the previous legislative session, has aligned with the KMT and TPP in certain cases, such as reducing the budget for procuring US loitering munition drones by NT$6 billion, and on the DPP’s non-binding resolution in the committee on the Indigenous Defense Submarine, expressing the need for strict quality and test control of the prototype. These are some examples that a bipartisan consensus still exists, and is not always partisan.
Amid escalating threats from Beijing, there is indeed a clear necessity for Taiwan’s defense budget to continually and rationally increase. However, this increase should be purposeful, not arbitrary.
Dramatic improvements in military personnel pay and benefits undoubtedly represent one of the most meaningful and necessary investments as Taiwan moves toward allocating 3 percent of its GDP to defense.
Wang Kai-chun is senior foreign policy advisor for the office of KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin.
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