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 Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS