My Four Months in the "Chinese" Army: From Firsthand Observations on the ROC Military to the Possibility of War in The Taiwan Strait

In the early morning of February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. Since then, the West has been paying more attention to the situation in the Taiwan Strait. However, as of this writing, most people in Taiwan do not know how the government will call for a reserve force in the event of a war in the Taiwan Strait. How will these reserves defend Taiwan? How will the people respond to this war? 

In 2017, the Office of the Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Defense for Policy asked the RAND Corporation, a think tank that provides research and intelligence analysis services to the U.S. military, to assess the ROC's reserve forces and related policies. According to the report, "the ROC Armed Forces Reserve Command does not have the budgetary resources necessary to enhance recurrent combat training to maintain the skills of its reserve personnel. In addition, a brief rotational training program has prevented Reserve recruits from receiving adequate and rigorous training," and "the ROC's current approach to Reserve training may be appropriate for many of the system's non-combat support personnel. Still, the level of combat readiness of the Reserve Forces appears to be inadequate in the event of a full-scale Communist Chinese invasion.

Authors:

• Fausto Chou (周子愉)

  • Education: Bachelor’s in Public Administration, Tamkang University
  • Experience: With six years in journalism, he has worked as a financial editor and political reporter at ETTV, a political and investigative reporter at FTV, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of Eat News. He has interviewed high-profile figures, including former speechwriters of U.S. President George H.W. Bush, a former U.S. diplomat to Saudi Arabia, the former President of Slovenia, Belarusian opposition leaders, Hong Kong Legislative Council members, a member of China’s CPPCC, German Bundestag members, and Kazakh opposition leaders.

• Shefali Ranawat

  • Education: Master’s in Journalism, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
  • Experience: Based in India, Shefali is a freelance journalist with a wide-ranging portfolio. Her interests include conflict reporting and she has a keen interest in covering war-related news.

• Muhammad Farhan Niazi

  • Experience: Since 2005, he has reported from Pakistan, covering diverse events across the country. His 17-year career in journalism has focused on socio-economic developments, geopolitics, and strategic affairs.

Book Information:

• Rights Holder: Thesis7ting LLC
• Publication Date: December 1, 2022
• Publisher: Economic and Political Media Limited
• ISBN: 1230005939404
• Language: Chinese