A total of 90 military officers were promoted yesterday to the rank of general during a ceremony presided over by President Lee Teng-hui (
The promotion moved 23 army and air force major-generals, and navy rear admirals to the rank of lieutenant general or vice admiral, and 67 colonels and captains advanced to the rank of major general or rear admiral, the MND said.
Last year 84 officers were promoted, 78 the year before that.
"It may appear that we are doing something against the spirit and principle of the Chingshih (
"More generals than expected retired last year, which resulted in an increase in the number of vacancies for the positions," Lo said. "We did not add any new positions for generals.
"Those generals chose to retire last year mainly because of early retirement incentives that the MND offers to officials who are nearing retirement age. The incentives are part of packages which the MND adopts to reduce the number of high-ranking officials in the services," he said.
"The number of military officials to be promoted to generals next year might be the same as this year. But it will be further reduced to somewhere between 60 and 70 in the following years."
Over the past few years, the Chingshih project has reduced the number of positions for active-service generals from 700 to 500, marking the largest-ever streamlining of high-ranking officials in the military, officials with the MND said.
Minister of National Defense Tang Fei (
"Under the Chingshih project, military personnel will continue to be reduced but their workload will not get any lighter -- on the contrary, they will be expected to contribute more. It will be a difficult task for the military to push ahead with its dual goals of personnel streamlining and enhancing combat readiness at the same time," Tang said.
Newly-promoted Major General Chu Yu-shu (
"Among the 400 to 500 people who graduated at the same time with me from the academy, only around 10 have been able to climb to the rank of general," Chu said. "The competition is really fierce."
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