How Could the ROC Armed Forces, with Instructors But an Inattentive Following, Cope with the Tense Situation in the Taiwan Strait?

How Could the ROC Armed Forces, with Instructors But an Inattentive Following, Cope with the Tense Situation in the Taiwan Strait?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 9, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

The Chief of General Staff Shen Yi-ming died in a helicopter crash; now six months later, the Marine Corps conducted an amphibious landing drill, resulting in an accident involving the overturning of the rubber raft, leading to two deaths. An instructor, on the other hand, committed suicide in the barracks, possibly due to blaming himself for the accident. At the time of this chaos, Wu Yi-nong, a rising DPP cadre, who once served on the National Security Council, questioned that amphibious landings were absolutely unnecessary for Taiwan; to be incorporated in the Hanguang military exercises was purely “putting up a show." Regarding this, President Tsai believed that it was "not entirely fair", and the Ministry of National Defense criticized the comment as harming the officers and men.

This phenomenon reflects the three levels of chaos, social, psychological and strategic of Taiwan, both internally and externally. The first level: The military has accidents one after another, losing officers and men, and fails to make persuasive explanations. Does this mean that we should worry about the combat strength of our armed forces? The second level: The DPP incites Taiwan independence ideology, and Taiwan's internal anti-China momentum is on the rise, but this force is also full of negative comments and mistrust of our armed forces at the same time. How can such a contradiction be resolved? At the third level, US-China wrestling in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea is on the rise. Taiwan is at the outpost of conflict between the two sides. The Tsai government often makes aggressive moves; however, does the training of our armed forces’ combat strength catch up with such a leaping national strategy?

The periphery of the Taiwan Strait is one of today's global tinderboxes. From the government to the people, no one can afford not to emphasize national defense. However, at present, society is full of fluke mentality hoping for a free lunch, half-baked when incidents occur, but always dealing with them based on biases. These all constitute damage to national defense and security. After the overturning raft incident, conversely, it was Marine Corps veterans who continued to cheer the men and women in active service, showing some positive strength. The devil training baptism of the Marine Corps has made these marine veterans proud of their active service years in the military, knowing that their blood and sweat had a more glorious goal, and not for placating the vulgar. Does the Ministry of National Defense, which always fails to clearly explain issues at press conferences, want to know the truth of the matter?

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