To enhance the defense of the capital, the Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday confirmed a plan to station an additional military police battalion in Taipei, and to gradually double its ranks to 10,000 when the extension of the military conscription period comes into effect tomorrow, a source said.
The new unit would be the sixth battalion stationed in the capital under the 202nd Military Police Command, which has set new yearly recruitment targets to incrementally increase the nation’s military police to 10,000, from 5,000, said an official at the ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The approved plan would garrison the new military police unit in Taipei’s south sector, tasked with safeguarding key infrastructure and strategic facilities, and to counter a “decapitation tactic” by China, a possible strategy of mounting a rapid assault operation targeting government leaders in the initial stages of an invasion of Taiwan, the source said.
Photo: CNA
Taipei’s north and south sectors are divided by the Keelung River (基隆河), and a military assessment pointed to the need to bolster military police battalions in the south, the source said.
Ministry officials said China has escalated tensions and destabilized peace in the region, with frequent incursions into Taiwan’s sea and airspace by its warships and aircraft.
Therefore, Taiwan must prepare to be able to defend itself against an attack, and so the ministry has endorsed several arms procurement packages in the past few years to bolster combat readiness, while undertaking reforms and upgrading training programs for all armed forces branches.
The source said that the ministry’s report in October showed the army branch has stationed two infantry brigades (137th and 249th) in Taipei, along with two combat battalions for the defense of specific infrastructure, which are under the command of the Sixth and Eight Army Corps respectively.
The five military police units in Taipei include the 211st Battalion, which is tasked with the security around the Presidential Office Building; the 332nd Battalion, which is tasked with security at the official residences of the president and the vice president, while the 239th Battalion — which is the only armored combat unit among the five — is stationed in the Dazhi area (大直), and is tasked with guarding the ministry and military compounds in the area.
Taiwan has a different setup from other countries. The military police command is a separate branch of the armed forces and is tasked mainly with guarding the nation’s key facilities, protecting the personal safety of government leaders against hostile forces and conducting counterintelligence work against enemy infiltrators, spies and saboteurs.
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