The Ministry of National Defense’s failure to require female reservists to attend educational mobilization for military reserves “violates the principle of gender equality,” a report released yesterday by the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said.
The report, which focused on the government’s efforts to make better use of reserve forces over the past few years, cited the ministry as saying that although it only reached half of its annual target for the training of reserve forces this year, it had no more training capacity at present, and therefore had not called up female reservists.
The report criticized the decision to overlook female reservists, saying that performance records show that active female members of the military perform just as well as their male counterparts, and that more women have joined the military annually over the past few years.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Asked about the report during an interview, former minister of national defense Michael Tsai (蔡明憲) said that the ministry should not only consider including women in the additional training sessions, but should include provisions in the budget to allow for separate washrooms, dormitories and other facilities to accommodate the inclusion of more women in the military.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Jang Chyi-lu (張其祿) said that accommodating women in the military would not be a great expense for the government, and that the ministry must start considering female reservists when arranging training courses.
The ministry said the number of female reservists participating in performance evaluations that test their ability with firearms has increased from 20 percent to 50 percent in the past few years, and 90 percent of those participating pass their evaluations.
Commenting on the matter, Institute for National Defense and Security Research analyst Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said the number of women passing the evaluations was lower than it could be due to a lack of training and evaluation personnel.
“The defense budget must be increased, with a higher percentage of resources devoted to reservist training,” he said.
“If there were more personnel to carry out the assessment of recruits, then we would see more than 60 percent of women passing the evaluations,” he added.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS