An interesting brief from The Jamestown Foundation on the challenges and results, so far, of the Taiwan Military under the Ma Ying-Jeou Presidency.
[quote]Taiwan’s Defense Transformation and Challenges Under Ma Ying-Jeou
April 22, 2011 04:31 PM Age: 2 days
By: Fu S. Mei
The third anniversary of Taiwan’s landmark 2008 presidential election, which brought the Kuomintang (KMT) back to power, is approaching. Since Ma Ying-Jeou’s inauguration in 2008, Taiwan has made significant progress in improving relations with China and in expanding cross-Strait economic interpenetration. A review of the Ma administration’s record on national defense, however, suggests that the administration faces substantial challenges ahead in fulfilling its promises on national defense. As part of his campaign platform and subsequent declarations, President Ma pledged to implement the following objectives in his defense policy agenda:
· Transform Taiwan’s military to an all-volunteer force within 6 years;
· Restructure the military to a leaner, smarter, more elite force;
· Commitment to defense spending at not less than 3 percent of GDP [1].
Indeed, Mr. Ma’s vision to reform Taiwan’s defense establishment, both in terms of strategic outlook and composition, is proving to be much more difficult and costly than perhaps expected. The ramifications of this trend are two-fold: both for cross-Strait security dynamics and for President Ma politically as he looks toward earning a second term in office…(rest of article at link)
tinyurl.com/3obx89j [/quote]
I think this presents an interesting look at what , and occasionally ‘why’, has transpired here on the island under Ma and what is todays KMT.
Comments?
(well, I mean comments about the article)