The Ministry of National Defense’s reported move to cut 2 percent of the army’s chemical unit as part of its Elite Forces Plan was met with opposition and questions in light of the disasters that have befallen Japan.
The Elite Forces Plan is part of the ministry’s preparations to phase out compulsory military service and replace it with a voluntary program.
A report from the Control Yuan on Thursday suggested that the ministry plans to reduce the total number of active forces from 275,000 to 215,000, which would lower the relative proportion of personnel and equipment available for disaster relief and prevention.
Saying that disaster relief and prevention are already the primary missions for the army, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Justin Chou (周守訓) said the ministry should not disband necessary units just for the sake of disarmament.
According to anonymous sources, each of the three army groups nationwide has chemical units. Each unit has a reconnaissance battalion, a smoke battalion and an aid-deployment battalion.
To support the 7 million Taiwanese in the north of the country, the northern army group has appointed four companies to each battalion. Meanwhile, the central army group only has three companies to a battalion, while the southern army group only has one company assigned to each battalion.
Including those stationed on the nation’s outlying islands, the total number of soldiers in chemical units is about 2,000.
However, the ministry’s disarmament project suggests that all three aid-deployment battalions should be disbanded.
According to a decommissioned corporal, who declined to be named: “The chemical unit was reinforced after the SARS scare [in 2003], when it was discovered the nation had insufficient manpower. It’s ironic that five years later it’s being disbanded.”
The chemical unit the key line of defense against pandemics or epidemics, chemical factory fires and even the nuclear crisis in Japan, the decommissioned corporal said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS