President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) recently promoted 20 senior military officers. Some of them were controversial, but most were outstanding and well-respected. This is a sign of Tsai’s increasing confidence in dealing with the military and improved skills at recognizing talent.
I have long paid attention to national defense corruption and have on several occasions participated in global evaluations. Having compared the lack of transparency and high levels of corruption in many neighboring countries, the integrity of Taiwan’s high-ranking officers is not in doubt. However, what is concerning is their international outlook and ability to resist procurement corruption.
Taiwan did very well in the 2013 and 2015 global evaluations, but the biggest problem was defense procurements from a single source, which for many years has been restricted to the US. Organization, equipment and training standards almost completely follow the US, and so Taiwan has a US-style national defense. As time has passed, the necessity to study military training in Europe, Japan and South Korea has been neglected.
Taiwan has been limited by not being a UN member since 1971. It is one of a small minority of developed countries whose military has not participated in peacekeeping missions, and there is an extreme lack of international contacts and practical battle experience.
By contrast, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) frequently participates in peacekeeping missions, and it is currently rapidly accumulating capacity and experience in international military actions.
It is necessary that Taiwanese officers participate in exchanges with European countries, the US, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and South Korea, and this is a policy that it would be well worth for Tsai to promote.
To give one example of the flexibility and innovation of Taiwanese officers: Several years ago, I took a group of Taiwanese and Japanese university students and school children from remote areas to the Hukou military base in Hsinchu County.
Taking an innovative approach, the commanding officer who received us converted data about tanks into units the students could quickly grasp. Asking the school children if they could guess the weight of a tank, he would then tell them by comparing it to the weight of an elephant.
The Japanese professor traveling with the students was impressed by the military’s participation in the local community and the innovative explanations.
That commanding officer is one of the officers promoted by Tsai.
Taiwanese officers do not lack innovation, what they lack is instruction and encouragement from top leadership.
It is good that our high-ranking officers are focused on Taiwan, but they must not become too local, because that would restrict their outlook, and they would be unable to keep up with the internationalization of the PLA.
In addition, when it comes to promoting women, the military should not be overly enthusiastic. We have a woman as president, and establishing true gender equality is not achieved simply by deliberately promoting one sex over another.
As commander-in-chief, Tsai should express her confidence by encouraging officers to increase their participation in international exchanges and evaluations.
Ernie Ko is a member of Transparency International’s Membership Accreditation Committee.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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