Taiwan To Remodel Training System For 'Strawberry Soldiers,' Analysts Say 'Still Not Enough'

Taiwan is reportedly revamping its training sessions for military reservists after facing criticism for producing 'strawberry soldiers' who are 'fragile and easily crushed' in the event of actual confrontations with the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

This comes as both the U.S. and Pentagon suggested Taiwan increase its defense budget, buy more arms and strengthen its reserve forces, reported South China Morning Post.

As per the new training system, some reservists will be required to spend 14 days a year on refresher training courses. At present, the training is limited to five to seven days.

This will be applicable to 13 percent of the 110,000 reservists and they will be called up under a lottery draw. The selected ones will be required to fire more than double the amount of bullets they fire in shooting drills. Combat training will be extended from half a day to 56 hours.

Despite all these measures, analysts do not believe it would do much good as there is limited training time, a shortage of instructors, and inadequate facilities.

“Even after the military increases the refresher training for the reservists, the 14 days are still not enough and the effect would be limited as these people have never received training as tough as the active forces,” said Chang Yen-ting, a retired air force lieutenant general, told South China Morning Post.

Chang added that the reservists suffered from low morale and were not enthusiastic about being called up. This is besides the shortages of instructors and training equipment.

Chieh Chung, a security researcher at the National Policy Foundation, a think tank for the main opposition party Kuomintang, shares Chang’s views.

"The military must address the issue that there are not enough qualified officers to train the reservists. Worst yet, reservists’ specializations are not taken into consideration by the military during call-ups, meaning a reservist can be assigned to a post contrary to what he had learned when he was a conscript," Chieh told South China Morning Post.

Meanwhile, a 22-year-old reservist told the news outlet that he "will not be OK if I have to go to war"

Peter Liao, a member of a 2.2 million-strong reserve force, said he did not think "he had learned enough to survive a war."

"It was like a cram school as there were many things, various doctrines in particular, to learn,” he said. "But before I could fully digest anything, the instructors already started cramming us with new things. Take cleaning or disassembling a gun, for example. I learned that in the classroom, but if you asked me to do it again in a field operation, I suspect I couldn’t remember how to do it," he added.

He added that new conscripts rarely had any mock field experience as supervisors were afraid they would get hurt. Liao said "sweeping leaves and pulling weeds were part of the routine service in the camp."

"So if you asked me if I went to war would I be able to fight against the enemy? I can tell you definitely I wouldn’t be able to do so,' he added.

Recently, a report by Wall Street Journal had suggested that American military planners do not believe that Taiwanese forces can hold the line against the People's Liberation Army. Taiwan's military is riven with internal problems, many of which have built up over years of calm and economic prosperity and now are eating away at Taiwan’s ability to deter China, the report added.