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
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