The military is to form a new reserve mobilization agency while expanding the scope of civilian forces that can be mobilized as part of its efforts to bolster the nation’s reserve forces amid increasing threats from China, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
The ministry made the announcement in a report it sent to lawmakers for review.
The ministry would integrate two existing military agencies — the All-out Defense Mobilization Office and the Armed Forces Reserve Command — into a “defense reserve mobilization agency” by January next year, the report said.
Photo: Tu Chu-min, Taipei Times
The structural change is part of a military reform to make Taiwan’s reserve forces a more reliable backup for regular soldiers in defending the nation, it said.
Chu Sen-tsuen (朱森村) of the All-out Defense Mobilization Office said the military is also working with the Ministry of the Interior in the hope of amending the Civilian Defense Act (民防法) to expand the scope of civilian forces and volunteers the military can call upon during peacetime and war.
The act forms the legal basis for the defense ministry to mobilize civilian forces.
It defines volunteers the defense ministry can mobilize in case of need as volunteer police officers and volunteer firefighters.
The defense ministry hopes the scope can be expanded to include volunteer workers at Buddhist and Taoist temples, as well as churches, to give the military access to extra personnel, Chu said.
Temple and church volunteers have for decades played an important role in offering post-disaster relief, including preparing food and shelter after major natural disasters or emergencies, Chu added.
The defense ministry in February said that starting next year, it would introduce new rules governing the call-up of reservists to improve their combat readiness.
Under the new policy, reservists would undergo two weeks of training rather than the current five to seven days, and could be called up every year instead of the current once every two years.
The new policy is to begin as a limited trial from next year to 2023 before full-scale implementation in 2024.
The military has also extended the period during which reservists can be called up from four times in eight years after being discharged from military service to four times in 12 years, starting this year.
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office today requested that a court detain three individuals, including Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns. Chang is suspected of accessing a household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪), prosecutors said. Prosecutors yesterday directed investigators to search six locations, including the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Keelung office and the residences of several recall campaign leaders. The recall campaign leaders, including Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), Yu Cheng-i (游正義) and Hsu Shao-yeh
COVID-19 infections have climbed for three consecutive weeks and are likely to reach another peak between next month and June, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Weekly hospital visits for the disease increased by 19 percent from the previous week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. From Tuesday last week to yesterday, 21 cases of severe COVID-19 and seven deaths were confirmed, and from Sept. 1 last year to yesterday, there were 600 cases and 129 deaths, he said. From Oct. 1 last year to yesterday, 95.9 percent of the severe cases and 96.7 percent of the deaths