Errors have been spotted in some local versions of the civil defense handbook, including images of a Taiwanese soldier carrying an AK-47 rifle and background illustrations resembling Chinese troops and military vehicles.
The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency last year updated the content of its civil defense handbook, which contained sections on peacetime preparation, wartime response, enemy identification, and safety measures for civilians during air raids, major power outages and other emergencies.
The MND’s handbook is the main reference used by local governments when producing their own handbooks, with lists of local air raid shelters, hospitals and depots for essential goods.
Photo copied by Wu Su-wei, Taipei Times
However, some people complained about errors in the handbook released by the Yunlin County Government, with the cover illustration of a Taiwanese solider carrying an AK-47 rifle.The Type 56 assault rifle used by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is a configuration of the Russian-made AK-47.
The AK-47 is not used in Taiwan. The army most commonly uses the domestically made T91 assault rifle. The T91 assault rifle and its predecessor the T65 were inspired by the US-made M-16 rifle, which was commonly used in the 1970s during the Vietnam War.
Handbooks released by the Keelung government contain illustrations of weapons closely resembling the PLA’s QBZ-191 automatic rifle and the AK-47, which are not used by Taiwan’s troops.
The Yilan County Government’s version of the handbook depicts soldiers in regular and combat uniforms that are not worn by Taiwan’s forces, and also has images of AK-47 variant rifles and armored personnel carriers resembling those of the PLA.
The Yunlin County Government Civil Affairs Bureau said the company that was contracted to produce the handbook likely lacked knowledge about weapon types, and did not pay attention when downloading content from Web sites.
A Keelung government spokesman said they would double-check with the MND, as the ministry reviewed the guidebook content prior to publication.
Yilan County Government officials said they contracted out the design and illustration services, and the contractor company’s graphic designer downloaded free stock images from foreign Web sites, which they edited.
The county government demanded that the contractor correct the mistakes and redesign affected pages, they said.
Free stock images might have been used and corrections are under way, the MND said, adding that it would assist local governments in reviewing the local versions.
Veteran graphic designer Chen Chien-chung (陳建中) on Friday said that such errors might happen during the making of such designs as the content was not prepared by Taiwan’s armed forces.
“The crucial steps are the editing and reviewing phases, as they make it possible to spot and correct mistakes before printing,” he said.
“This also shows the importance of civilian defense education. If the designers have no basic knowledge of military affairs, without a good comprehension of Taiwan troops and standard-issue weapons, and combat uniforms, such errors are likely to occur,” he added.
“Local governments have no dedicated office for civilian defense, so external contractors would source through online materials and free stock images, as they might be unaware of the differences between Taiwan’s T91 rifle and AK-47,” said Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), head of research at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
“The local officials in charge of production of the handbook also clearly lacked civilian defense knowledge, and military affairs of Taiwan and China,” he said.
Additional reporting by Lu Hsien-hsiu, Tsai Yu-jung, and Chen Hsien-yi
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