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Taiwan should establish new combat abilities: strategists

ROC Central News Agency

2009/03/15 20:27:19

Taipei, March 15 (CNA) The non-government Institute for Taiwan Defense and Strategic Studies (ITDSS) released a report Sunday on the Ministry of National Defense's (MND's) first quadrennial report due to be issued the following day, suggesting the government develop "persistent and asymmetric" combat abilities by upgrading information gathering and missile defense, as well as conducting military reforms.

ITDSS Chairman Michael Tsai, a former deputy defense minister, and ITDSS executive Lee Wen-chung, a former legislator, made the call at a news conference hosted by the institute to release the report.

They contended that developing asymmetric combat abilities such as reconnaissance, information gathering and missile defense are extremely important given the imbalance in military forces on either side of the Taiwan Strait.

Asymmetric combat abilities involve strategies and tactics of unconventional warfare that the "weaker" combatants attempt to use to offset deficiencies in the quantity or quality of their forces.

The ITDSS report predicts that the quality and quantity of China's military will outweigh Taiwan's by 2010, an unprecedented imbalance between the two sides since 1949.

It also suggests that a general reconstruction is needed in the country's military in terms of organization, personnel, guidelines and culture to achieve an effective upgrade.

"Upgrading weaponry is simply not enough. It has to be combined with military reform in order to increase our combat abilities," they said, adding that better troops and simplified administration are necessary.

Lee and Tsai also expressed reservations on the government's plan to implement an all-volunteer military system by 2014, saying that now is not the right time to promote such a program.

"The decision is not a careful military decision but rather a political one, " Lee said, questioning where good professional soldiers could be recruited from and how the government would finance such a program.

The report argues that conscription and volunteering systems should work hand in hand in order to achieve the best efficiency and that the MND should strike a balance between national defense and the nation's finances. (By Rachel Chan) ENDITEM/J