Despite the Ministry of National Defense's (MND) recent public assurances that it is well-prepared for biological attacks, a military leader yesterday conceded that the military is still very weak in its ability to defend against such attacks.
The military can now handle only three kinds of biological warfare agents -- smallpox, plague and anthrax -- said deputy chief of the general staff for operations Lieutenant-General Hu Cheng-pu (
"We have vaccines for these three kinds of agents, but we do not have enough of them for all the armed forces. The vaccines we have can only meet the needs of major combat forces," Hu said.
Hu admitted the military's weakness yesterday as he answered inquiries from a lawmaker during a question-and-answer session of the Legislative Yuan's defense committee.
Hu's admission contradicts a statement made by the MND on Tuesday that the military is well-prepared for not only biological attacks but also chemical attacks.
The contradiction is considered to be further proof of the lack of synchronization between the military administrative system, as represented by the MND, and the military command system, as represented by the office of the chief of the general staff. Hu belongs to the military command system.
The armed forces' ability to deal with biological and chemical attacks became a hot topic in Taiwan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the US drew world attention to the wide range of tools terrorists could use to attack their targets.
In the wake of the devastating attacks in New York and Washington, a host of biological and chemical weapons are rumored to be within the technical grasp of terrorist organizations and could be used to attack targets in the US or other countries.
At yesterday's session of the defense committee of the legislature, KMT lawmaker Lu Hsiu-yen (
Unable to provide specific answers, Wu asked Hu to answer on his behalf. Hu is responsible for a variety of combat-related affairs in the armed services.
Although Hu admitted that the military is still very weak in its capacity to defend against biological attack, it is better prepared for defense against chemical agents.
"We have enough troops and equipment to deal with chemical attacks. They have the expertise to handle attacks of this kind," Hu said.
As to the military's weakness in defense against biological agents, Hu said the situation will improve since the military now can produce vaccines for biological warfare agents like smallpox, plague and anthrax.
A defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said in a time of emergency, the military can request vaccines for biological warfare agents from neighboring countries.
The official declined to reveal, however, from which neighboring countries Taiwan could seek help in the event of biological attacks.
"Another problem we have to pay attention to is that the military does not have extra gas masks for people outside the military to use in the event of a biological attack," the official said.
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