Turning All the People into Soldiers, Are We Willing to Pay the Price？
By Chen I-hsin
United Daily News, July 21, 2022
Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper headed a delegation to visit Taiwan. Esper suggested that Taiwan should reinstate conscription, increase national defense budget to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), strengthen the mobilization and combat capability of reserved forces and suggested that all young male and female should serve in the military. The crunch is that if Taiwanese people truly desire to be a pawn of the United States to deplete the combat power of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)?
The delegation led by Esper first met with Chairman Eric Chu of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT). The implication is noteworthy. On the morning of July 19, the delegation met with President Tsai Ing-wen, then proceeded to have a talk with related government officials. They discussed with both ruling and opposition parties on issues such as reinstating conscription, reinforcing combat power of reserved force and strengthening our determination of self-defense.
If first meeting with the major opposition party was a deliberate move by the delegation, its purpose might be to further understand the extent of Chu’s pro-America attitude and the views of the KMT on Taiwan’s self-defense. If, however, its first meeting with the major opposition party was the idea of President Tsai, it might be possible that she hoped to consolidate a bipartisan consensus so that she would be able to mention in her national day address this year.
In his meeting with President Tsai, Esper especially spoke some nice words, including his personal opinion that the United States should abandon the tactic of “strategic ambiguity” and clearly tell Beijing not to use force to invade Taiwan. He also expressed that the “One China” policy is outdated and expected the United States could allow Taiwan to participate in more Indo-Pacific strategic affairs. The issue is that the remarks, given after his tenure at the Department of Defense, represents only his personal opinion which has insignificant influence.
The Esper delegation is the third one to urge us to reinstate conscription and reinforce mobilization of reserved force. US president Joe Biden dispatched the first bipartisan delegation headed by Michael Mullen, former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. His delegation visited Taiwan from March 2 to March 3, apart from meeting with President Tsai, his major mission was to ask Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng to reinstate conscription. The U.S. senatorial delegation headed by Senator Tammy Duckworth visited Taiwan from May 30 to May 31, conveyed the American message asking us to strengthen mobilization and combat power of reserved force. A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Duckworth and the director of US National Guard Interstate Cooperation Project meeting with Minister Chiu and director-general of the All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency, and other officials in detailed discussion. The Tsai administration also agreed to cooperate.
Because President Tsai has never been soft on procuring U.S. arms, this time Esper straightforwardly demanded an exorbitant price asking Taiwan to increase national defense budget, reinstate conscription, strengthen mobilization of reserve force and even calling Taiwan for turning all people into soldiers.
If Taiwan is to increase its national defense budget to 3.2 percent of GDP, it would definitely pressure out public funds for social welfare, education, science and technology, as well as research and development, and undermine economic development, the consequences of which the people will have to bear. Esper suggested that Taiwan should extend conscription to a full year, but in case military tensions escalate in the Taiwan Strait, further extending conscription is justifiable in order to strengthen the mobility and combat capabilities of reserve forces. But this also means that citizens under the age of 50 should have the psychological preparation to enter the battlefiled at any time.
Among those proposals proposed by Esper, the most controversial was the one which proposed all Taiwanese young male and female must serve the military. This proposal reflects new U.S. strategic thinking after the breakout of Russian-Ukraine war. In short, the United States hopes that Taiwan can turn all Taiwanese into soldiers; when necessary, Taiwan can engage in street or guerrilla warfare with the PLA in the island to deplete China’s combat capabilities.
The American request that Taiwan promote capabilities power and fight a dissymmetrical war with China will not stop there. Delegations after delegations of visits will pressure the Tsai administration. Facing the demand by the United States, if Taiwanese are not willing to pay the price for turning all people into soldiers or for economic recession, we should make a wise choice in the elections.