Taiwan's Lack of Domain Experience
Experience vs. Knowledge
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24 June 2023 (Saturday)
Taiwan's Lack of Domain Experience
Experience vs. Knowledge
By Wendell Minnick (Whiskey Mike) 顏文德
TAIPEI - What U.S. defense advisers, analysts and trainers are discovering while here is that there is a critical difference in the lack of Domain Experience and Domain Knowledge by Taiwan’s military.
Taiwan has absolutely no Domain Experience beyond naval patrols and airpower patrols of their territorial waters and airspace.
They have not engaged in combat in generations. But to be fair, neither have Singapore nor Sweden, but they are considered competent and effective militaries.
Taiwan’s problem is zero general competence, rote training, and a failure of leadership to prepare. Instead, leadership is preparing to defend against China with big metal and big dreams.
The Taiwan military is not even allowed to use the word “enemy” in reference to China. I am not joking. They can use the phrase “a threat to Taiwan’s security”, but NEVER say the word “China”.
The Harry Potter jokes about Voldemort are so old here they are now an annoying cliché.
The last time Taiwan’s Air Force was engaged in training and aerial combat missions (Great Desert Program) was in the Yemeni Civil War from 1979-1990. Before that you have to look at CIA supported (Taiwan piloted) Black Bat and Black Cat missions during the Cold War.
Naval combat missions probably have to reach back to the end of the Civil War with a few mildly ugly incidents during the Cold War.
Army comes a bit closer with covert missions during the Vietnam era with Taiwan political warfare officers training the South Vietnamese military and working as translators for captured Chinese military personnel working with the North Vietnamese Army. In the early part of the war, there were Taiwan special operations “commando” missions in both north and south Vietnam.
During the Reagan era, Taiwan’s Fuhsing Kang College (Political Warfare Academy) provided training to CIA-supported Contra rebels after the U.S. Congress forced the CIA to shut down the School of the Americas after it was learned that Green Berets were teaching torture methods.
Taiwan simply has no institutional memory of active combat or direct action (covert missions such as assassination or sabotage). They do not even engage in real simulated combat. Everything is scripted, which is obvious at the annual Han Kuang live fire exercise.
But Taiwan does have impressive Domain Knowledge in some areas.
The best example is the F-16 training program at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, where Taiwan’s 21st Tactical Fighter Squadron (the Gamblers) receive top tier fighter training.
There are some exchanges that allow Taiwan’s Army to train at facilities in the U.S., but these are normally very small groups or individuals.
Taiwan special operations units have trained with the U.S. Special Forces (Green Berets), Ranger School (Fort Benning), and with the U.S. Navy’s SEALs.
Still, this is Domain Knowledge that does not necessarily trickle down the ranks. Taiwan special operators who are lucky enough to train in the U.S. are often placed in a desk job upon returning or leave for the private sector soon after.
This “tradition” keeps the brass from “breaking the rice bowl”, something U.S. military personnel here in Taiwan will discover in the near term as training falters.
Taiwan’s military brass currently has no plan to “implement any of the training” now being implemented, according to senior Ministry of National Defense personnel.
Why?
Iron rice bowl (鐵飯碗) issues are the major reason. You do not destabilize traditions that endanger someone’s face (面子) and break the rice bowl (salary/benefits/pension).
For example, a one-star General X who has five years left before retirement knows that the system well enough to calculate his next chess move.
And Fortes Fortuna Juvat is for the insane. There are no mustangs amongst the flag officers.
Why? Because you are not elevated entirely by merit in Taiwan, but by a combination of your academy’s class year, merit, and inherent Asian social hierarchy structures.
For merit, your classmates would most likely have the same experiences and honors. This is the true reason that scandals may have an asymmetric influence in the decision making.
But for class year, sometimes an entire class year can be skipped if no suitable candidates exist for the next level. This is the only hopeful sign of military modernization in Taiwan’s armed forces. This does happen, perhaps less in the army though because the army has a lot of flag-officer positions that allow people to rotate.
Basically, if General X graduated in 2000 and there are thirty people with one star who graduated in 1999 with the same honors that X has then they generally go up the ladder first.
So General X does the math (merit, class year, social hierarchy) and knows that there is an opportunity for an additional star only if the math comes out in his favor. If not, General X might decide to coast towards retirement and that means no implementation of any new programs.
Confused? Actually math of this type makes or breaks entire military modernization programs here in Taiwan.
In fact, implementing complex new programs only terrifies General X awaiting his next star or wanting to collect his pension without scandal.
What if things go sideways? Someone is killed during training? A trainee is raped by an officer who is a relative of a politician? A Chinese spy is caught amongst his acolytes?
Taiwan’s news media loves scandal. Every time a soldier gets his foot run over by a tank it is on the front page news here.
An island of only 24 million people do not have much else to do and one of their favorite hobbies is collecting stories of incompetence in the military.
On 3 July 2020, during a beach landing by the Marine Corps’ Amphibious Reconnaissance Patrol (ARP) one of the rubber boats flipped over killing two members.
One of the officers of the ARP committed suicide over the scandal.
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen shamelessly announced they would practice in the pool for now on. Her announcement was mocked in the local media as unrealistic with comparisons to that of a nanny-mindset.
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