Ministry of National Defense Press Release

Regarding the media coverage of “Combat Capability Impacted by the Cancellation of Conscription?”, the Ministry of National Defense has solemnly stated today (16^th) that the Republic of China Armed Forces conforms to the Constitution of the Republic of China to pledge loyalty to the country and protect the people, and is absolutely confident to have the enough capability to ensure national security and regional stability and peacefulness.

Ministry of National Defense pointed out that most of the major modernized and developed countries implement conscription, which contains the advantages of long service period, long retention for long utilization, special talents for dedicated utilization, and facilitate the elevation of combat capability. Under the diversified complementary measures of the government, the recruiting manpower has increased from 69.5% in 2015 to 82.8% at the end of 2018. Joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance has been used for the rescuing missions of multiple natural disasters in recent years; combat training missions have been reinforced since the first season of this year with the primary goal of rapidly elevating the combat capability by “Training with Enemy Situation”, and each troop is asked to follow the target of “Surpassing and Defeating the Enemy” and combat instructions of “Combat Capability Protection”, Coastal Victory”, and “Beach Strand Enemy Annihilation” to exert the joint combat performance with an innovative asymmetric warfare cogitation in order to achieve the strategic goal of “Tenacious Defense, Multiple-layered Deterrence”, which actively demonstrates the determination and capability of self-defense.

Ministry of National Defense emphasized that since the promotion of the enlisting system, the Republic of China Armed Forces has been constructing an enduring and solid national defense combat capability that is “small in quantity, superior in quality, and strong in combat capability” with the target of paying equal attention to quality and quantity as well as elevation of combat capability. Defending the sustainable development of Republic of China as well as maintaining the peaceful state of the Taiwan Strait and regional stability is the core value that all officers and soldiers from the Republic of China Armed Forces strive for; the ministry hereby requests the continuous support of citizens to protect our home together.