Comparison between Taiwan and China's military professionalism and readiness

Both Taiwan and China aren't going to be up to US standards when it comes to the readiness of aircrafts. Both militaries lack a significant NCO force and we know that aircraft maintenance is done by NCOs. China is moving quickly to address the NCO gap but Taiwan I'm afraid is falling further and further behind. The big recruitment drive in Taiwan is having a real hard time meeting quotas. I think the latest quota was only 5~10% filled. It's terrible. Furthermore, the majority of new recruits are female seeking administrative assignments. They join the military to earn a stable income and support their family.

There's no doubt in my mind, a decade from now, the PLA would be able to field a very modern all-professional force with a large number of well trained NCOs. The PLAAF pilots are already getting almost twice as much airtime as their ROCAF counterparts. Recent studies show that ROCAF pilots are getting intercepted within 3 minutes of taking off (crossing the Taiwan strait). It used to be that ROCAF completely dominated the strait and flew across the line all the time. By the time the PLAAF interceptors got up there, the ROCAFs were gone. My how the times have changed.

Also another really bad sign of ROCAF readiness: Their planes are crashing due to poor maintenance. Just look at the incident with PH and ROC earlier this year. Taiwan staged several large scale war games and patrols with a combined ROCN and ROCAF force and they lost at least 3 or 4 planes (Mirage + F-16), which resulted in both plane types being grounded for safety inspections. They had to mobilize the IDFs instead. Even one of the much vaunted Lafayette frigates, of which the ROCN has just two, was caught being used by its sailors to smuggle contrabands and her captain was also found to have participated in group gambling right after the end of a failed exercise!

volleyballer said:

Both Taiwan and China aren't going to be up to US standards when it comes to the readiness of aircrafts. Both militaries lack a significant NCO force and we know that aircraft maintenance is done by NCOs. China is moving quickly to address the NCO gap but Taiwan I'm afraid is falling further and further behind. The big recruitment drive in Taiwan is having a real hard time meeting quotas. I think the latest quota was only 5~10% filled. It's terrible. Furthermore, the majority of new recruits are female seeking administrative assignments. They join the military to earn a stable income and support their family.

There's no doubt in my mind, a decade from now, the PLA would be able to field a very modern all-professional force with a large number of well trained NCOs. The PLAAF pilots are already getting almost twice as much airtime as their ROCAF counterparts. Recent studies show that ROCAF pilots are getting intercepted within 3 minutes of taking off (crossing the Taiwan strait). It used to be that ROCAF completely dominated the strait and flew across the line all the time. By the time the PLAAF interceptors got up there, the ROCAFs were gone. My how the times have changed.

Also another really bad sign of ROCAF readiness: Their planes are crashing due to poor maintenance. Just look at the incident with PH and ROC earlier this year. Taiwan staged several large scale war games and patrols with a combined ROCN and ROCAF force and they lost at least 3 or 4 planes (Mirage + F-16), which resulted in both plane types being grounded for safety inspections. They had to mobilize the IDFs instead. Even one of the much vaunted Lafayette frigates, of which the ROCN has just two, was caught being used by its sailors to smuggle contrabands and her captain was also found to have participated in group gambling right after the end of a failed exercise!

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I don't think China combat readiness standard is behind US but more on rather the amount of combat readiness aircraft compare to US.

Given the rising military budget. China definitely has a group of highly combat readiness fighter ready for war anytime. But this group will probably bear the brute of the airforce. China military always emphasize on 1st tier group which is definitely the best equipped and most well funded. I will expect this to be limited number that can react the crisis or non aticipated situtation.

Then they will have the 2nd tier which will definitely a step below the 1st tier. less fund, less efficient pilot, less maintenance to save cost.

Here's my understanding of the People's Republic's conscription system:

1. Buttom-line for any military force's conscription system: Met the quantative needs of fielding an active force and reserve force.

2. If you are a small regime to start with, to met that supposed quantative needs, your national think tanks calculated that you need to "grab" all of the suitable aged men and women (preferably men, no intention to debate with feminist here), every year! So the conscription system in these parts of the world work as "No one get away".

3. If you are a huge nation with jaw-dropping population to start with, to met the supposed quantative needs, your national think tanks calculated that you only need to "grab" partial of the suitable aged men every year. So the conscriotion system in these part of the world seems like "Someone can get away".

4. So the logical conclusion is: Met the needs is the ultimate core-function of conscription system, "grab everyone" is one of the means to that end, but not the end itself.


So to the People's Republic more precisely, the MoD issued bills which National Congress passed as laws in the 1990's and amended in the 2000's, the 《国防法》、《动员法》 (National Defence law, Conscription law), clearly dictate that EVERY abled men, and when appliable, women, aged from no earlier than 16 and no later than 24 (or something, not sure the exact figure), is eligible to a mandatory national service.

...... so that if one day when the Zergs really comes and invaded our holly Terra, there is already existing laws to response to crappy ney-sayers of "make love, not war" gangs. Similar practicese has been observed to the United States of Ace, during Vitnam war era.


Now if you take a closer look to the bolded font of "eligible" and the absent text of "...to a mandatory national service of XX years -- this is the game part.

Eligible means "you will be on call", but dose not means specificlly YOU the individual will be called - not to the active unit at least.

The conscription law also said the aforementioned suitable aged men (and when appliable, women) can take part in the local 人武部 (roughly translated as "Department of People's Arms") validated 军事训练 (military training) which can be organized by Academic institutes, state owned organization/entity, Organized factory, Organized street administration unit... no less than a period of time (usually less than 3 months), as considered to fulfilled the aforementioned mandatory national service duty.

And each year's active unit's new conscription men-strength, shall be determined by the MoD, all the calrification rights of related documentation and orders shall be retained by MoD, all the other branches of governmental bodys and social entities shall assist the relevant conscription work without explicit hampering... and bla bla bla.


The reality is: Despite PRC having the largest men-strength of active military force on earth, and to replenish decommissioned servicemen requires the largest men-strength of new conscription EVERY YEAR, only a tiny fraction of China's abled aged eligible men and women, ever entered the active PLA and PAP units. The rest of vast number of supposed eligible men and women, every year a new batch, all aged 18 or so, being herded by less-than-excited relevant academical, governmental, social bodys of various type, to some less-than-excited so called military trainings which less sporty than western world's boy scouts, to a period of likes of 2 weeks, accommodations not included, AWOLs not logged, military standards not supposed, firearms not involved, you-have-served-your-country-well-I-am-proud-of-you concluded, CONSCRIPTION.

And by THAT, many considers the People's Republic as THE threat to world peace, can't tell which link failed at this information age here.


On the other hand, mainlander I, am very sincerely looking forward any man or woman, from the perspective of R.O.C. Nationalist Revolutionary Army (THIS, NRA, PLA's opposide side of a sovereign coin, is the formal name of the good force that ended China's Imperium era; and fighted with the good people of the rest of world side by side at WWII; that Taiwanese media try their best not to ever mention it in its full name for explicit reasons) point of view, to shed more light on their professionalism and readiness, rather than any other “资深媒体人”(Senior media hotshot) across either side of the strait.

I am a Chinese myself, I think I can provide some insight into the recruitment system of China's armed forces.

First of all, conscription DOES exist in China, and has been in that way since the establishment of the rigime. However, it is NOT the primary source of service personnel. In fact, that is only a small fraction.

According to my personal experience, students in 3rd grade of senior high school(the 12nd year of education, one more year to college) are required to register at the recruitment office of Department of People's Arms. In contrary to typical opinions, it is often loosely enforced, I myself got a phone call from recruitment officer requesting my personal infos and they never bother me thereafter.

The people get drafted are usually the students in 3rd grade of senior high school, whose academic performance are rather poor, basically the last 5~10 in the grade. In my province(Guangdong), most parents don't like their children serve in the military, hence they bribe the reccruitment officer, pull some strings, or just plainly refuse to cooperate, and they can always get away with it. I have never heard anyone in China prosecuted for draft dodging. Ironically, in other less developed provinces, parents actually have to bribe the recruitment officers to get their children into the military, as they see the military as somewhere people can out-achieve their parents, or have a better life after discharged from the military.

If any of you want to know something about the 'volunteer' part of Chinese recruitment system, please let me know, I would be happy to oblige.

PS: forgive my poor English.