Career planning and family factors are among the four main reasons cited by volunteer soldiers in applications to be ruled “unfit for service,” the Ministry of National Defense said.
Some of Taiwan’s combat units have fallen below 80 percent of staff as early retirements and discharges increase within the ranks.
The most cited reason was career planning, followed by difficulty adapting to military life, family issues, and health or injury, the ministry said in a report to the Legislative Yuan.
Photo: CNA
As the armed forces have a wide range of responsibilities, from defense to disaster relief, more personnel are not renewing their contracts, the report said.
From January to October last year, 4,172 officers and soldiers were discharged for being unfit, it said.
Career planning accounted for 52.2 percent of early discharges, as applicants cited a diversity of job choices, the possibility of better salaries and more freedom as reasons for leaving, it said.
Meanwhile, difficulty in adapting to military life accounted for 27.1 percent, it said.
Some people who enter the military directly after graduating might find it difficult to adapt to the routine, such as night sentry duty or being unable to take expected vacation time, which makes them prone to more stress, the report said.
Family factors accounted for 16.9 percent of the total, with respondents citing issues such as raising children, caring for elderly family members or managing a family business, the report said.
It said that 3.3 percent cited health problems, while “other reasons,” such as a mismatch in expectations, accounted for 0.5 percent.
The retention rate of military personnel last year was 78 percent for officers and 74 percent among enlisted personnel, the ministry said.
Officers, due to higher salaries and having undergone comprehensive training, usually have lower attrition rates compared with enlisted personnel, it added.
A rise in private-sector wages due to a shortage of workers has also lowered willingness among members of the public to volunteer for military service, the ministry said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS