Taiwan has one of the largest reserve forces in the world, but they are poorly trained and lack equipment, a Ministry of National Defense report says.
The defense white paper for 2000 blames the troops' low combat readiness on the military's lack of funds to provide training and equipment.
The defense white paper is published once every two years by the Ministry of National Defense.
The report says the time given to training reserve troops is insufficient. If conditions do not improve, reserve troops are not expected to be able to provide effective support to active troops in time of war, the report warns.
Taiwan has around 3.48 million reserve troops, mainly conscripts who keep their reserve status from the time they complete their two-year compulsory military service until they turn 40.
The military has operated a recall system to train reserve troops for several decades. The report does not blame the recall system itself, but says the way it is executed contributes to the low combat readiness of reserve troops.
There are two kinds of recalls: a one-day and multiple-day. According to the conscription law, a multiple-day recall for reserve troops can last as long as 20 days. But the multiple-day recall has been reduced to between five and seven days because reservists can not usually get longer periods of leave from the companies they work for, the report says.
The one-day recall has been reduced to a postal check of the current addresses of the reservists on the recall list.
The reservists do not have to report to any military unit. They just have to mail back the recall order to complete the one-day recall procedure.
The report blames a lack of funds for the scaling back of the recall system.
The military can only recall around 90,000 reserve troops for combat training a year, far below its projected goals, the report says.
The report does not specify, however, what the projected goals are.
The military also lacks funds to fully equip reserve troops for combat training. It is estimated that the military needs NT$6.4 billion to equip the reservists. But in the defense budget for fiscal 2002, only NT$110 million has been allocated for the purpose.
The shortage of funds and equipment means reserve troops usually have little to do when they are recalled to military camps for combat training.
Frequently, the troops end up watching military education programs on TV or doing other kinds of "static" visual training during the recall, the report says.
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