Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) on Sunday last week said laws should be amended to increase penalties for acts of treason, citing attempts by Beijing to undermine morale in the armed forces. In one case, two junior officers allegedly filmed themselves saying they would surrender to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, while a lieutenant colonel allegedly agreed to fly a Chinook helicopter to defect to China.
All acts of treason and espionage are dangerous given the existential threat China poses to Taiwan, but those involving current or retired military personnel are particularly egregious. If the military demonstrated itself to be incapable or unwilling to resist a Chinese invasion, there would be no point in the US or any other country getting involved in the defense of Taiwan.
With the military in the past several years moving away from conscription toward relying mostly on volunteer soldiers, recruitment would suffer if the public believed that the military would simply capitulate in the event of a cross-strait conflict. Further exacerbating the situation is Taiwan’s declining birthrate, meaning that the pool of eligible recruits would continue to shrink.
Effectively tackling treason and increasing resilience among the armed forces requires tougher penalties for treasonous acts by current and retired military personnel and politicians, such as a ban on travel to China for military personnel and politicians for 10 years after retirement, and sweeping reforms to make service in the armed forces a more attractive prospect for potential recruits. Penalties for expressing allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should extend to those who have retired from public service. It should also be explicitly defined in law that pledges to the CCP by current or retired public servants are beyond the scope of free speech, as such expressions potentially endanger national security.
As many acts of treason occur when current or retired public servants travel to China, banning such travel would make it harder for the CCP to influence Taiwanese affairs. Of course, tackling the motivations for treason in the first place would be the most effective approach to curbing such acts, but that is only possible if the motivations are financial. Those who are ideologically driven would not be swayed by incentives, so the military and government should devise ways of assessing and vetting candidates for higher positions to prevent those with pro-CCP leanings from obtaining positions of power.
To ensure the military can meet its recruitment needs, the government should consider raising salaries and offering sign-up bonuses, among other perks. Training should also be more practical, and duties should be commensurate with a recruit’s interests and skill set. For example, those interested in firearms and close-quarters combat should receive training in weapons and martial arts, while those with technical skills should have the option to train in drone operations or cyberwarfare.
The armed forces could also communicate with foreign militaries about the possibility of Taiwanese soldiers participating in combat scenarios abroad. The roughly 30 Taiwanese fighting in the war in Ukraine as part of the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine are evidence of the interest of some soldiers in obtaining real combat experience. That experience would be invaluable to Taiwan in the event of a conflict. An increased number of opportunities for exchanges or training in the US or elsewhere could serve as motivation for some potential recruits.
An opinion piece published on June 14 by the Web site Domino Theory cited Kitsch Liao (廖彥棻), assistant director of the Global China Hub at the Atlantic Council in Washington, as saying that the navy and air force have fewer recruits than needed. Therefore, the military should focus on recruiting and training for those areas.
Taiwan must eliminate CCP collaborators and boost military recruitment numbers before it is too late.
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