President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) attaches particular importance to building up the nation’s defenses, including defense independence and reserve forces. She has repeatedly instructed the military to reform and advance the reserve system, and re-emphasized the significance of the issue in her Double Ten National Day address.
On the eve of Double Ten National Day, the Ministry of National Defense unveiled the direction of its reserve force reform, planning to increase the length and frequency of reservist call-ups for two weeks of training annually starting in 2022, while establishing a defense mobilization administration under the Executive Yuan.
In that way, the number of reservists receiving training yearly would increase from 120,000 to 260,000. Although the plan has prompted many different opinions, reserve forces are of great importance, because they are the vanguard of Taiwan’s “all-out defense” and they serve side-by-side with regular forces.
Take South Korea as an example. The ideal of its reserve policy is to arm the whole public. There are more than 3 million well-trained civil defense personnel in reserve in South Korea. They serve as the main force in the defense system when dealing with large-scale conflicts or emergencies.
The Republic of Korea Reserve Forces mainly participate in activities such as disaster response, emergency mobilization, social aid and military training during peacetime, but the South Korean government can quickly turn certain reservists into regular forces during wartime if necessary.
According to South Korea’s definition, reserve forces are comrades-in-arms of the soldiers and police protecting the country. They are compatriots who are working while fighting and fighting while working, and the main force defending the public’s freedom.
The mission for the reserve forces is that during wartime or a state of emergency they can assist the regular forces or participate in military mobilization in response to combat needs and protect the nation from being invaded or harmed by the enemy, while taking the lead in cultivating self-defense awareness among the public.
The duration of annual training for South Korean reservists varies according to the length of their military service and their military ranking.
However, the training of reserve forces is almost as tough as that of regular units. The strict training is well-known around the world, as South Korea strives to build the sharpest reservists.
South Korea has two major reserve branches, the Mobilization Reserve Forces and the Homeland Reserve Forces, and those in the former must receive regular training one day every month, as well as a three-day call-up every year. Every four years, they must participate in the four-day Ssang Yong (Twin Dragons) exercise, a field training exercise conducted by South Korea and US biannually since 2012, which is part of the Foal Eagle exercise conducted by the two countries annually.
During the drill, reserve and regular forces are generally mixed together to provide actual combat training. This enables reserve forces to enter the field as soon as possible after receiving emergency training if a war breaks out. Besides, all women are welcome to join reserve forces on a voluntary basis.
Taiwan should learn from South Korea’s reserve policy and training methods. This could help the defense ministry achieve its goal of uniting the regular and reserve forces and fulfill its plan to streamline regular troops, while expanding reserve forces to effectively improve the nation’s combat capabilities.
Chang Ling-ling is a military instructor at National Defense University.
Translated by Eddy Chang
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
After 37 US lawmakers wrote to express concern over legislators’ stalling of critical budgets, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) pledged to make the Executive Yuan’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget a top priority for legislative review. On Tuesday, it was finally listed on the legislator’s plenary agenda for Friday next week. The special defense budget was proposed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration in November last year to enhance the nation’s defense capabilities against external threats from China. However, the legislature, dominated by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), repeatedly blocked its review. The
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said on Monday that it would be announcing its mayoral nominees for New Taipei City, Yilan County and Chiayi City on March 11, after which it would begin talks with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to field joint opposition candidates. The KMT would likely support Deputy Taipei Mayor Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) as its candidate for New Taipei City. The TPP is fielding its chairman, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), for New Taipei City mayor, after Huang had officially announced his candidacy in December last year. Speaking in a radio program, Huang was asked whether he would join Lee’s
RSS