The Ministry of National Defense (MND) wishes to elaborate on the media coverage “Withdrawal mechanism, now signed into law, affects national defense organization”, as follows:

1. The revision by Legislative Yuan on Act of Military Service for Officers and Noncommissioned Officers of the Armed Forces was due to consideration on soldiers’ rights and maintenance of armed forces combat capabilities when voluntary commissioned/non-commissioned officers suffer from major incidents. Hence, Subparagraph 10 of Paragraph 1 of Article 15 indicates that “officers are allowed to retire after one service of active service and upon being approved by the Human Resources Evaluation Committee”. Paragraph 3 of Article 15 also clearly states that the person who does not fulfill his obligation of completing service duration shall be deemed liable according to the law.

2. The MND also wishes to clarify on media’s report “voluntary commissioned/non-commissioned officers shackled by mandatory service” and “high-ranking officers may outnumber low-ranking officers”. The armed forces’ voluntary commissioned/non-commissioned officers signed up for their service in the military voluntarily, and have obtained their qualification to become officers through a series of registration, examinations, selections, basic trainings, and dedicated education. The retain rate has been increased to 76.8% so far, and the number of new recruits at various voluntary commissioned/non-commissioned teams has seen a prominent growth, compared to the same period last year. The recruitment rate of voluntary service members has now reached 81%, passing the annual expected target in advance. This shows that man power in all sectors are stable and have not been affected by the passing of new law. The MND calls for the public’s encouragement and support for the military’s sacrifice and the officers’ services.