The Ministry of National Defense is planning to resume training for “goose step” marching at the Military Academy — previously known as the Whampoa Military Academy — to celebrate its centennial anniversary in 2024.
Marching in goose step does nothing to improve military strength, and such training is meaningless.
The Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Training should abolish this kind of promotional activity, and instead work harder to synchronize training with Israel, Singapore and the US.
The military’s formal step marching originated from, but is more laborious than, Germany’s goose step marching, as soldiers must move their arms and legs like robots.
It is performed by swinging the hand forward at 90 degrees and backward at 15 degrees, while kicking the feet up at 45 degrees and pressing the toes downward during the kick to step forcefully with a loud sound. It is enough to make a soldier lose their breath even during a short march past a review stand.
Training the soldiers is time-consuming, as their movements must be synchronized so that they can march in perfectly straight lines. Without at least three months of intensive practice, marching past the review stand only looks disorderly.
Doctors have even said that stepping forcefully enough on the ground to make the loud sound could injure the brain.
As a result, by the time that Taiwan discontinued goose step marching in 2003, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy had already canceled the practice, and only the Military Academy and National Defense University’s Fu Hsing Kang College were practicing it once per week.
Some might say that the Military Academy is only planning to march in goose step for its centennial anniversary, not promote it for the entire armed forces. This viewpoint might overlook that preparations for the ceremony are inevitably to take students away from their regular coursework.
In particular, if goose step marching becomes a success, it could also be promoted elsewhere in the military.
Each of the academies is to send a marching company to the Military Academy to celebrate the anniversary. In the past, when a marching company was understaffed, members of field forces were dispatched instead. This means that ceremony preparations are to affect the academies, and perhaps other troops as well.
Not long ago, the army tried to promote its “battle drum team,” and now it wants to resume goose step marching.
The military has been criticized for ordering soldiers to sweep the floor or clean the camp to kill time, and now it wants to add this marching skill: How is that going to enhance Taiwan’s military strength?
The US Military Academy at West Point marches past review stands without performing the goose step and its combat powers remain strong. How strong is Taiwan’s combat power?
The answer to this question is self-evident.
Goose step marching is suitable for a limited number of units such as the military’s honor guard.
Every ministry policy has an effect on future officers and generals — hopefully they will not focus on superficial appearances. During the four years of academy education, “iron is refined into steel,” and students have many things to learn. Goose step marching should not be one of them — it is an anachronism.
The military should adjust its position and instead adopt the “slow march,” as used by US and British soldiers, as it is solemn and easy to learn.
Chu-Ke Feng-yun is a director of a hospital’s medical management department.
Translated by Eddy Chang
They did it again. For the whole world to see: an image of a Taiwan flag crushed by an industrial press, and the horrifying warning that “it’s closer than you think.” All with the seal of authenticity that only a reputable international media outlet can give. The Economist turned what looks like a pastiche of a poster for a grim horror movie into a truth everyone can digest, accept, and use to support exactly the opinion China wants you to have: It is over and done, Taiwan is doomed. Four years after inaccurately naming Taiwan the most dangerous place on
Wherever one looks, the United States is ceding ground to China. From foreign aid to foreign trade, and from reorganizations to organizational guidance, the Trump administration has embarked on a stunning effort to hobble itself in grappling with what his own secretary of state calls “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.” The problems start at the Department of State. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has asserted that “it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power” and that the world has returned to multipolarity, with “multi-great powers in different parts of the
President William Lai (賴清德) recently attended an event in Taipei marking the end of World War II in Europe, emphasizing in his speech: “Using force to invade another country is an unjust act and will ultimately fail.” In just a few words, he captured the core values of the postwar international order and reminded us again: History is not just for reflection, but serves as a warning for the present. From a broad historical perspective, his statement carries weight. For centuries, international relations operated under the law of the jungle — where the strong dominated and the weak were constrained. That
On the eve of the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) made a statement that provoked unprecedented repudiations among the European diplomats in Taipei. Chu said during a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting that what President William Lai (賴清德) has been doing to the opposition is equivalent to what Adolf Hitler did in Nazi Germany, referencing ongoing investigations into the KMT’s alleged forgery of signatures used in recall petitions against Democratic Progressive Party legislators. In response, the German Institute Taipei posted a statement to express its “deep disappointment and concern”
RSS