The four-month conscription rule aimed at wooing young voters was a ridiculous move on the part of Taiwan’s two largest political parties, former National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general Ting Yu-chou (丁渝洲) said on Sunday.
Former US secretary of defense Mark Esper, while visiting Taiwan last week, said that military service for conscripts should be extended to one year and women should be included in the program.
Taiwanese men had to serve two to three years in the military as part of a conscription system adopted by the Republic of China government after it relocated to Taiwan in 1949. Conscription was reduced to one year in 2008.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
During former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, the government announced that joining the armed forces would be voluntary and conscripts would only be required to undergo four months of military training, starting in 2013.
The policy has continued under the Democratic Progressive Party, which came into power in 2016.
The nation’s military is mainly a volunteer force now, with conscripts serving a supporting role.
“Shortening the conscription not only reduced the military strength of active-duty soldiers, but also paralyzed the strength of the reserve forces,” Ting said on Sunday at a book launch by former NSC deputy secretary-general Chang Jung-feng (張榮豐) in Taipei.
Ting served as head of the NSC from August 2001 to March 2002 under former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), and was head of the National Security Bureau and Ministry of National Defense’s Military Intelligence Bureau under former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
The world is paying attention to cross-strait issues and some countries have even listed Taiwan as one of the most dangerous regions in the world, Ting said.
He said that he had never been afraid of war when he served in the military, but is becoming more fearful of it after his retirement.
The Chinese military has grown at a fast pace over the past two decades, Ting said, adding that the gap between Taiwan’s and China’s military forces is widening.
Even if Taiwan were powerful enough to defeat China, it should avoid war, because it would harm its citizens, he added.
In addition to strengthening its military forces, Taiwan should focus on “soft strategies,” using diplomatic, psychological, economic and technological measures to safeguard the country, he said.
“Protecting the country’s best interests is an expression of love for Taiwan,” he added.
Additional reporting by CNA
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS