I don't see why ROC officers would change their loyalties on the basis of having a trip to China. It's not like Taiwan is North Korea and they'll go
"oh my God, our leaders are lying, we're so backward and poor". And what are Chinese people going to say -
"hey, you need to start following Chairman Xi, he's the best thing since Mao. You don't need democracy when you can have a dictator for life"?
China can't object to other countries making free trade pacts. Even it knows that. It can object to arms sales to Taiwan. Obama was worried about North Korea, and arms sales were something China could leverage with the vague promise of assistance for US foreign policy. Obama could have presented upgrading the existing F-16s as a compromise.
Whereas saying they'd retaliate over the TPP would have got an angry response even from Obama. It would have been the equivalent to objecting to domestic economic reforms on the basis it strengthened the US and made it harder for China to get an advantage.
So now the ROCAF doesn't have any pilots or ground crews?
At the rate we're going, in a few months someone on SDF is going to claim that Taiwan doesn't have any active personnel in its armed forces and the people who take part in national day marches are paid actors.
I'd be willing to accept that some sections of the Taiwanese military could have low readiness rates due to shortages, but they can't all be simulatenously affected to the same degree.
It's one poll, but it suggests opinions might be changing - no doubt thanks to a certain neighbour adopting a more aggressive posture.
I don't think that Taiwan will reintroduce conscription given it's already worked on transforming to a volunteer service. But it might make further reforms to help fill the manpower gap if they can't close it by other means.
Your extreme and absurd rhetoric is just plain stupid, to be frank.
Previously, you brought up shooting civilians which is a strawman on top of being completely irrelevant to the conversation.
Now you bring up Xi Jinping/dictatorships, again totally impertinent. Honestly, how do you end up picturing Taiwan as the analogue to North Korea in this?
You yourself had said a rogue Chinese Nationalist in Taiwan could steal the secrets a few pages ago. I am actually agreeing with this idea, but now you are just acting childish.
Don't debate facts with ideologically centered imaginary counter-narratives.
FACT: Nine years ago Lo Hsien-che, a ROC Maj. General was arrested. A General, not some low level grunt. There are more recent stories of other personnel being arrested. You can search for others yourself, there's usually at least one story a year.
FACT: Increased person to person exchanges will increase vulnerability to espionage. It could be simply exchanging money, it could be illicit affairs, whatever. I'm actually assuming most officers are probably discouraged from travelling to mainland. If it makes you feel better, this can affect PRC too, but owing to the opacity of the media and security apparatus, we won't hear about it. Furthermore, this was in specific reference to the F-35 anyway.
FACT: Greater Chinese nationalism is an issue unique to China-Taiwan relations.
FACT: TPP was a far greater counter move than a handful of fighters (already outclassed by J-11 anyway from a strategic standpoint).
ROC Armed forces personnel shortages are not new. I've posted articles on this before. Some sources have some combat units at half strength. Granted, SLAM-ER won't affect readiness since it is just equipping F-16, but something like coastal Harpoon would. I mentioned it before, a new weapon system will require newly trained personnel, logistics and organizational groups. Even if you have all personnel cross trained in both coastal defense HF-2 battery and Harpoon, it can't increase the effective strength since you are just splitting the existing personnel across more units. I am not imagining stupid things like paid actors or spouting off some "great glory to the PLA" rhetoric. Again, this is just a fact.
You can cite all the opinion polls you want. The proof will be in action. Would the government admit abandoning conscription is a mistake (granted that it was done by a KMT administration)? The move to volunteer force is flailing (yes, flailing like a person drowning), the numbers just aren't there. This has been discussed to death already.
