"Taiwan military service should be at least 1 year, and boys and girls should participate in order to improve defense capabilities," he said. "If mainland China launches war to invade Taiwan, the target of attack is all people in Taiwan, regardless of gender, age, so all men, women, and young in Taiwan must stand up and defend their lives."
Former US Secretary of Defense Esper, who is unwilling to be lonely, leads a visiting delegation of the Atlantic Council to visit Taiwan. On the 19th, he said something amazing when he held a press conference at Taiwan's "Ministry of Foreign Affairs": Taiwan's military service should be at least 1 year, and boys and girls should participate in order to improve defense capabilities. He said: "If mainland China launches war to invade Taiwan, the target of attack is all people in Taiwan, regardless of gender, age, so all men, women, and young in Taiwan must stand up and defend their lives."
This sentence sounds a bit familiar, does it sound like Washington let Kiev "fight to the last Ukrainian "?
At the press conference, Esper put forward a total of 4 suggestions for Taiwan's "national defense policy", and military service is one of them. First, increase the "national defense" budget; second, strengthen asymmetric combat capabilities, third, compulsory military service should be extended for more than one year, and fourth, strengthen the mobilization capacity of reserve soldiers.
Hot discussions on the island. The DPP is embarrassed.
Tsai Ing-wen doesn’t know what to say. Zhang Tunhan, spokesman for the "Presidential Palace", said that the "Presidential Palace" had no comments. But thanks to Esper for his "long-term support for Taiwan and his concern and attention to Taiwan's 'national defense'." As for the compulsory service period, the Ministry of National Defense must evaluate the opinions of all parties, and it must measure the training capacity of the combat training task and be in line with the National Army's combat readiness thinking of strengthening "asymmetric combat" and effectively respond to the needs of modern warfare.
htmlOn the morning of the 120th, when asked about the question of "Young men and women in Taiwan can only serve in the military for at least one year to defend Taiwan's security", Taiwan's "President" Su Zhenchang looked around and said that he used empty diplomatic rhetoric: "Since taking office, President Tsai has been strengthening national defense and cooperating with regional countries, working with partners and countries of the same value to safeguard national sovereignty, regional peace, and world peace. He will continue to review and improve the preparation and training of domestic military personnel."
Taipei City "Parliamentarian" Xu Qiaoxin posted on Facebook on the 20th that "both men and women are both soldiers" is not Esper's patent! As early as April last year, she proposed three proposals, including "Taiwan's compulsory service period should be extended", "both men and women should be soldiers", and "to deal with insufficient reserve forces". At that time, the DPP and its supporters criticized it for "unpredictable intentions". Now Americans come to Taiwan to make the same claim, but the DPP's attitude from top to bottom is "very polite". The "Presidential Palace" also thanked Esper for "concern for Taiwan's 'national defense'."
html When Tsai Ing-wen was received by Tsai Ing-wen at the "Presidential Palace" in Taiwan on the 119th, Esper also said that in his personal opinion, the one-China policy is "no longer useful" and "should stay away from strategic ambiguity." He also told Tsai Ing-wen that Taiwan's "defense budget" should increase to 3.2% or more of the annual GDP of the United States, and said that "Israel, a country in a similar situation to Taiwan," and military expenditure accounts for 5% of GDP.
Jie Zhong, a researcher at the Taiwan China Strategic Foresight Association, has done a calculation. If military expenditure is compiled according to Esper's suggestion, 3.2% of GDP will be NT$722.6 billion, accounting for 32% of the total government budget expenditure on the island in 2022; 5% of GDP will be NT$112.9 billion, accounting for an astonishing 50% of the total government expenditure in 2022. He said that this means that Taiwan will not be able to make decent investments in education, technology, transportation, etc. in the future.
As for both men and women serving more than one year of military service. Jie Zhong said that with the current 166,600 volunteer labor force not significantly reduced, with Taiwan's limited training ground and energy, it is impossible to deal with the large number of posts formed by Esper's suggestion regardless of the number of military service in men and women for more than one year.
China Times News Network said that Esper advocated the theory of "all people are soldiers" regardless of gender, based on his background as the vice president of the famous American arms dealer, Raytheon, and his arms sales to Taiwan that were almost "jumping off the building auction" during his tenure as defense minister. It's hard not to make people think too much.
Esper served as US Defense Secretary for only more than one year and approved arms sales plan to Taiwan exceeds US$10 billion, including 66 F-16V, Himas multi-bar rocket system and "harpoon" anti-ship missiles.
US Stars and Stripes reported on the 20th: When Esper called for the end of the "one China" policy in Taipei, the US Navy's missile destroyer "Benford" passed through Taiwan Strait again on the 19th.
