Military's budget should favor weapons over recruitment: DPP

The military budget should primarily direct its attention toward purchasing and repairing advanced weapons, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislators Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) and Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said yesterday.

A report concerning China's current military development released by the U.S. Department of Defense on Tuesday said that Beijing's military policy toward Taiwan had not changed, with over 1,100 short-range ballistic missiles aiming across the strait, said Chen.

The report criticized Taiwan's shift toward a voluntary military system, laying off of soldiers to save military resources and diverting of funds, which had originally been meant for the purchasing of weaponry, toward recruiting purposes.

The money saved from the personnel layoffs has not been able to cover the high expenses that come with the change to a voluntary military, Chiu pointed out, especially one with such an inefficient recruitment system. The R.O.C. army is currently made up of 235,000 soldiers, falling short of the government's goal of 275,000.

It is obvious that Taiwan's military capabilities are weakening, said Chiu, listing what he sees as problems with the current military budget. The funds assigned to military personnel maintenance and weapons purchases in 2008 were 37.7 percent and 35.9 percent of the entire military budget, respectively; the government however raised the personnel maintenance budget to 50 percent in 2013, leaving a mere quarter of the budget for weaponry, Chiu stated.

The voluntary recruitment drive has produced very poor results, said Chiu. The Ministry of National Defense (MND) is spending most of its budget on its unsuccessful recruitment efforts and covering a flurry of early military retirements, the latter being the result of the ministry's layoffs.

"We need to spend the budget on repairing and purchasing weapons but the percentage is decreasing at an alarming rate," said Chiu.

The ratio of Taiwan's drafted soldiers to volunteer soldiers in 2008 was 39:61, and this has hardly seen any changes in the five years since, said Chen, with the current ratio being 37:63.

"If Taiwan's weak military defenses and lack of arms budget are the result of the voluntary recruitment, the MND should reconsider its focus," said Chen.

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