The military is to turn by 2004 all manuals for combat into bilingual versions with Chinese and English placed side-by-side as part of its preparations for the start of joint exercises with a friendly country in 2006, defense sources said yesterday.
The project is in progress, with the National Defense University (NDU) taking the leading role.
It is only part of the preparations that the Ministry of National Defense (MND) is making for the beginning of joint exercises with a friendly country in 2006.
It is not clear whether the friendly country is the US. If it were the US, it would not be the first time that the Taiwan military held joint exercises with its US counterpart.
As the US helped Taiwan defend itself against China over three decades ago, the two countries have a history of joint military exercises.
But since the severing of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1979, the Taiwan military has been left alone in its fight against China.
Due to isolation from the outside world over the past two decades, Taiwan's military has suffered in not being able to adopt new military strategies and technologies.
To overcome the problem, the military has tried in recent years various means ranging from sending officials to the US to exchange ideas and giving US military leaders access to bases so that they can gain an understanding of the real condition of Taiwan's military.
In implementing exchange programs like these, the military has found that communication has been a major problem. Not many military officials, especially those in the army, have acceptable English speaking or reading capabilities.
A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said because of their limited English capabilities, many military officials rely heavily on Chinese-language materials, including those published by China, as they are required to write research papers.
"The [English proficiency] condition does not seem likely to improve in a matter of a few years. Before we see improvements, we may find that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will have a lot in common in military concepts," the official said.
"It is hard to upgrade the English capabilities in the military in a short time, so why not try bilingual education? The bilingual texts could give military officials a chance to understand how to say familiar terms in English. This is a fast way to prepare military officials for contact with their US counterparts in the future," he said.
A top military leader had experienced the difficulty of communicating with the US military several years ago when he visited the US in private, sources said.
On one occasion, the general was provided with a briefing in English by the US military. Whether due to poor interpretation by his aide, the general did not ask any questions after the briefing and chose to leave immediately, leaving US military officials at the site astounded.
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