• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Taiwan's armed forces should not be confused with PLA: spokesman

ROC Central News Agency

2012/02/10 20:59:25

By Justin Su, Kelvin Huang and Sofia Wu

Taipei, Feb. 10 (CNA) The government disagrees with any rhetoric that confuses the armed forces of the Republic of China on Taiwan with mainland China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi said Friday.

The Liberty Times reported on the same day that Hsia Ying-chou, a retired Air Force general, said at a conference in China on Feb. 8 that the ROC's military and the PLA have a common goal of pursuing unification of the Chinese race.

The Presidential Office could never agree with such a position, Fan Chiang said.

"Our stance on relations across the Taiwan Strait is crystal clear, and our military can never be mixed together with the PLA," the spokesman said in response to questions about the Presidential Office's view on Hsia's reported remarks.

Fan Chiang cautioned that only one media outlet had reported the statement and said it still had to be verified.

"But if the report is accurate, Hsia's statement was not only inconsistent with our national policy but also harmful to our military morale," Fan Chiang said.

He added that the core principles of the government's current cross-strait policy are "putting Taiwan first for the benefit of the people" and maintaining the present status quo of "no unification, no independence and no use of force" under the ROC's constitutional framework.

While all ROC citizens are entitled to freedom of speech, Fan Chiang said, a retired military general should exercise self-discipline and refrain from making statements that are harmful to the military's image and national interests or violate national policy.

Hsia's reported statement drew strong criticism from lawmakers across party lines. Chen Ting-fei, an opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative whip, said Hsia should not have made such a statement.

"Our legislative caucus will come up with a proposal to amend the Act of Military Service for Officers and Noncommissioned Officers to pave the way for depriving retired military personnel of pensions or other stipends if they speak or do something detrimental to our national sovereignty and image," Chen said.

Kuomintang Legislator Lin Hung-chi said it was regrettable that Hsia had made such an inappropriate remark.

"His move was an isolated case as most of other retired military officers have faithfully abided by national policy and regulations," Lin said.

He suggested that the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and the Veterans Affairs Commission (VAC) strengthen contacts and communications with retired military officers to avoid a recurrence of similar cases.

People First Party legislative caucus convener Thomas Lee said retired generals should avoid airing their views on political or cross-strait issues in public.

Noting that their remarks do not represent the government's stance, Lee said the public need not overreact to Hsia's comment, but he suggested that the MND and VAC improve military education for all active or retired military personnel.

Meanwhile, Hsu Chung-hsin, the legislative whip of the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), an ally of the DPP, said Hsia's remarks reflected his loss of identity with Taiwan.

"The MND should promote Taiwan-centric education in the military," he said.

TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei urged the government to conduct regular loyalty tests on all senior military officers, regardless of whether they are in active service or have retired.

"The government should stop pension payments to retired officers who fail to pass such tests," he said.