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Chen's book reveals plan to reshuffle military leaders

In his new book published yesterday, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) confirms that he had considered reshuffling the military leadership before the Dec. 1 legislative and local elections.

The plan was dropped because if any shuffle involving the defense minister and chief of the general staff took place before the elections, those positions would have to be changed again next year, Chen says in his book entitled The Premier Voyage of the Century.

On Feb. 1 the nation's military is scheduled to adopt a new command structure that will require the two posts be changed.

Instead Chen ordered on Aug. 8 a rearrangement of the leaders of the military intelligence agencies. Chen says in his book that this was more urgently needed because he sensed at the time that the quality and quantity of information being collected on China was suffering.

Under the new military command structure, mandated by two defense-related laws passed early last year, the chief of the general staff is to become the chief of staff to the defense minister. The move reverses the current relationship whereby the defense minister is only the nominal leader of the military and the actual power resides with the chief of the general staff.

Because of command-structure considerations, the initially scheduled military leadership reshuffle is to be put off until after the elections and is to be launched in two waves -- the first wave will happen after the elections and the second will coincide with the Cabinet reshuffle early next year, Chen said.

The shakeup Chen refers to involves all the major military leaders, including the defense minister, the chief of the general staff and leaders of the three services.

The Taipei Times reported in August that Chief of the General Staff General Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明) was to head the Ministry of National Defense before October, while Minister of Defense Wu Shih-wen (世文) was to become the secretary-general of the National Security Council.

The reassigning of Tang and Wu to the new positions would trigger a change in the positions of the leaders of the three services because Tang's successor must be chosen from among the leaders of those three services.

Under the original plan, navy chief Admiral Li Chieh (李傑) would have taken over the position left by Tang, while Deputy Chief of the General Staff Admiral Miao Yung-ching (苗永慶) was to take charge of the navy.
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