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Home Editorials of Interest Taipei Times Military needs Taiwanese identity

Military needs Taiwanese identity

In her inaugural address in May, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced three major areas of reform for the military: asymmetric warfare capabilities, the reservist mobilization system and the management structures.

However, the most pressing area of reform is to engender a sense of Taiwanese consciousness in soldiers, sailors and pilots. The concept of “ethnically Chinese Taiwanese” needs to be gradually built up during recruits’ education and training.

The Chinese Communist Party constantly pushes the idea that “Chinese do not fight Chinese,” while retired officers largely identify themselves as “Chinese on Taiwan.”

Tsai has been in office for almost five years, and during this time she has frequently advocated, and herself put into practice, “the Taiwanese point of view.”

However, the question remains: Given the decades of Sinicization under Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), is the military capable of loyally serving its commander-in-chief in the event of a war with China?

The People’s Republic of China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and the legal representative of China. This means that the Republic of China can only represent Taiwan, but calling the nation Republic of China (Taiwan) will not cut the mustard.

What is needed is to change the way military personnel think about their identity and make them “upright and dignified Taiwanese” rather than the “upright and dignified Chinese” that Taiwanese were taught they needed to be during the Chiang era.

Whether our ancestors came from China, Japan, the Netherlands or Spain or were Austronesian, we are all Taiwanese. Fostering a Taiwanese consciousness must start with military training and education.

The Tsai administration continues to plot a course for the nation as a sovereign and independent state under the banner of Republic of China (Taiwan), which has converged with a growing anti-China force in the US and pro-independence forces in Taiwan.

These elements are moving closer and closer toward what China calls its red line for military action.

As foreign forces are increasingly becoming involved and Taiwanese sovereignty increasingly becomes de facto separated from China, the military’s Taiwanese consciousness must be fortified, and they must declare that they are upright and dignified Taiwanese.

Given the still prevalent mindset in the military of being “Chinese in Taiwan,” in a conflict with China, the nation could lose both the psychological and the physical battle.

Tsai Sen-jan is a political writer.

Translated by Edward Jones


Source: Taipei Times - Editorials 2020/10/26



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Newsflash


Former foreign minister Mark Chen, former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Chai Trong-rong and Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin, left to right, speak during a press conference in Taipei yesterday to promote the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times

Pioneering democracy activists yesterday reminisced about the establishment and the achievements of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) ahead of its 30th anniversary and said the organization’s main goal would be safeguarding Taiwan’s sovereignty.

“In terms of diplomacy and protection of human rights in Taiwan, the association has done more in the past 30 years than the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration has,” former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) and former foreign minister Mark Chen (陳唐山), FAPA’s first and second presidents, told a press conference.