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[text/observer network wang shichun] the loss of volunteer officers and soldiers in the taiwan military is serious. according to a report by taiwan united news network on september 3, taiwan's annual defense budget book lists 160,749 "budgeted positions" for volunteers, which is 5,486 fewer than in 2024, a reduction of more than 3% compared to the total number of positions, equivalent to 11 joint battalions. it can also be seen from the budget that the "hardest hit areas" of manpower loss are concentrated in elite forces such as non-commissioned officers, senior soldiers, and front-line combat troops.

in this regard, some taiwanese scholars have warned that the frequency of taiwan’s military combat readiness training has increased significantly in recent years, and manpower has to be allocated to establish new units, making the military’s personnel shortage even worse; officers and soldiers cannot bear to "burn the candle at too many ends", so they retire in large numbers, creating a vicious cycle.

taiwan military conducting exercises source: taiwan military

despite the significant reduction in the "budget quota" for volunteer service next year, jie zhong, a researcher at the chinese association for strategic foresight, said that the "budget quota" for next year will be reduced by 5,486 people, a decrease of about 3%; the "combat force additional volunteer service allowance" that only combat troops can receive is allocated nt$750 million, a decrease of nt$364 million from this year's nt$4.119 billion, a decrease of nearly 9%. it can be inferred that the personnel loss in the front-line combat troops is far more serious than that in non-combat units.

as for the lack of professional soldiers, the taiwan authorities hope to solve it through "all-people defense". today (3rd) is the so-called "military day" of the taiwan military. hsiao mei-chin attended the founding conference of the "legislative yuan all-people defense alliance" yesterday and expressed the hope that all-people defense can be implemented in policy in a systematic and professional way. she also announced that lai ching-te plans to establish a "all-society defense resilience committee" and will hold its first meeting in the near future. = she said that the essence of all-people defense is to protect one's own homeland and land; she hopes that through everyone's joint efforts, industry, government, civilians and academia can all take responsibility in their respective positions, making taiwan more resilient, stronger and more united.

in addition to the "national defense", the taiwan authorities also hope to increase the number of conscripts. according to taiwan media reports, the taiwan military will resume the implementation of one-year conscripted service this year. the first batch of recruits has completed 8 weeks of "enlistment training" and will receive 13 weeks of "base training" with the troops starting as early as september.

however, several military officers recently submitted a written statement to the legislative yuan, pointing out that the taiwan military lacks equipment and officers, and cannot meet the training standards. these taiwan military officers also reported that the company and battalion lacks equipment such as communication machines for commanding troops, medium-sized tactical wheeled vehicles for personnel mobility, and fire trucks for disaster prevention, and cannot meet the training conditions.

the outside world has long warned of the "shortage" problem of the taiwan military. after the one-year compulsory service was launched, it was revealed that the taiwan defense department had drastically reduced the number of enlisted soldiers due to problems such as untimely barracks arrangements. the taiwan military's training grounds were also difficult to effectively match, and the task requirements proposed in the training outline were even more difficult to achieve. public opinion on the island denounced the dpp authorities for this: this military service policy is simply to cater to the americans and is hastily implemented.