2019/10/20
Ministry of National Defense Released a Press Release Clarifying On the Media Coverage of “USA Criticising Republic of China Armed Forces: Lack Real Worth and Effective Combat Capability”. (October 20th, 2019)
Regarding the media coverage of “USA Criticising Republic of China Armed Forces: Lack Real Worth and Real Combat Capability”, Ministry of National Defense has solemnly refuted today (20th) that the content of the coverage contain severe deviation from the truth, and clarified that the USA never made such comment. The biased news headline from the specific media has slandered the reserved solders of Republic of China Armed Forces, and damaged the reputation and dignity of the country. The ministry has solemnly condemned such behavior, and provided the following explanations:
1. Republic of China has been implementing the reserve system for many years, which has been constantly modified in accordance with enemy threats and the consideration to the development of domestic livelihood economy, and is currently in line with the overall defensive cogitation requirements of defensive combat in Taiwan and Penghu. Apart from achieving the requirement of “immediate mobilization and immediate combat”, the reserved soldiers are to attend the mobilization and training each year according to the time slot and order, and complete multiple verification on combat capability at the Han Kuang Exercise, making them the strongest backing for the regular troops. The above-mentioned coverage has severely slandered all reserved soldiers of the Republic of China.
2. There are approximately 2.3 million reserved soldiers in the country, and approximately 770K refined soldiers listed after having retired for 8 years. After the transformation into voluntary military service in recent years, the enlisting personnel primarily consist of retried voluntary soldiers with long service period and profound experience in combat skills, as well as male soldiers from the 4-month military training service as supplement; approximately 300K soldiers have been counted according to the requirements of compilation, expansion, and military combat in accordance with the current number of Armed Forces personnel, whereas the remaining 400K soldiers are listed as the warfare supplement echelon, and its marshalling and training are implemented each year according to the plan, where soldiers must be qualified at the end of each semester, which is completely different to the national guard system of USA.
3. After extensive discussion with us, and on-site visitation of the reserved troops, the USA has fully understood the reserve system of the Republic of China, and has never published the evaluation of “Lack Real Worth and Effective Combat Capability”. Regarding the false content published by the media, Ministry of National Defense hereby expresses its distress and regret.
4. Ministry of National Defense hereby solemnly advises that the media should shoulder social responsibility and verify all sources before publishing, as well as refrain from damaging the reputation of the country and the Armed Forces, as it is helpless to the maintenance of national security.