On Wednesday last week, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Following the event, many supporters of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) praised the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers’ goose-stepping, saying that their skilled marching indicated that the military has strong combat capabilities — some even went so far as to question how Taiwan could possibly fight back against it. The arguments were spouted with great fervor, despite being entirely nonsensical.
If decent goose-stepping equals strong combat capabilities, then North Korea’s military should be ranked first in the world — after all, its goose-stepping surpasses China’s. On the other hand, the US — the world’s top military force — has never goose-stepped. By those standards, the US would not even make it onto the list. That alone illustrates the absurdity of using goose-stepping to measure military strength.
The US military is the strongest in the world, demonstrated by its contributions to defeating the Axis powers during WWII. Throughout the war, the US served as the arsenal and food supply for the Allied powers. Without US support, the Axis powers likely would have conquered the world. Today, the US is even more powerful — and its military still does not goose-step.
During the war, CCP forces fought little against Japan. Yet today, the CCP shamelessly claims credit for victory. The KMT — also fond of military parades — is no different. Throughout the war, the CCP and KMT continued fighting among themselves and scrambling for territory, but they never recovered the lost land. If the US had not dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, which country would dare claim that it defeated Japan on its own?
Twenty-five years ago, the West was already discussing the “third wave” of the military affairs revolution — the modernization of warfare through advances in information technology, precision weapons and the exploitation of networks. Now, rapid developments in artificial intelligence are being hailed as the fourth wave. However, the blue and white camps are still lost in their nostalgia for goose-stepping and bayonet drills — truly behind the times. No matter how well your army marches, if it cannot handle combat, it is ultimately useless.
Teng Hon-yuan is a university professor.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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