Taiwan's military has yet to confirm local media reports that reservist brigades will be tested for the first time in the upcoming Han Kuang exercises. If true, it would mean new responsibilities for these troops.
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00:00Every summer, Taiwan conducts its largest military drills, the Hanguang exercise.
00:14For five days, the entire military simulates how they would defend against an all-out attack
00:19from China.
00:20But this year, part of this decades-old drill could change.
00:24Local media reports that the military could be looking to test how a group of reservists
00:29perform in the exercises.
00:31Taiwan's defense ministry declined to comment on the issue, but analysts from a government-backed
00:36think tank say the military is headed in this direction.
00:39Traditionally, Taiwan used to think of the reserve forces as a supplement to the military.
00:45In other words, when an active unit was damaged, these people were added to the unit.
00:51Now, it's a re-recovery, so that when Taiwan conducts its territorial defense, there are
00:58more units that can be used, so that it can form a good combination with the five-power
01:03and manpower.
01:07The move is part of a larger military reform, which started in late 2022.
01:13Eyeing threats from neighboring China, then-President Tsai Ing-wen extended mandatory military service
01:18from four months to one year, and Taiwan has since implemented more realistic combat training
01:24and strategies.
01:26In terms of active troops, Taiwan is outnumbered against China, with 153,000 soldiers compared
01:32to Beijing's roughly 2 million.
01:35But Taiwan has one of the world's largest reserve forces, with close to 1.6 million
01:40people ready to be called up to serve.
01:43That's why Taiwan wants to make sure that this force is properly trained.
01:47So yes, Taiwan has on paper, I think, a lot of manpower, but is that manpower trained
01:53to the level they need to be?
01:55And also, are they positioned and do they understand their missions well enough that
01:59they can perform them pretty automatically in the event of conflict?
02:03Taiwan's current policy sees both conscripts and reservists serve in mostly logistical
02:08roles, helping to provide equipment and support for the rest of the military.
02:13While reserves aren't directly on the front line, they're still an important part of the
02:17country's defensive strategy.
02:19The more you can train your civil society in a whole-of-society resilience format to
02:23take over some of the non-combat, just sustainment roles, that frees up more of the reserves,
02:29which frees up more of the regular forces.
02:32And that sort of upward push in terms of skill sets and kind of freeing up of that skill
02:36set, I think that's probably the most important, kind of the overarching goal that you'd want
02:40to aim for.
02:41The Hong Kong exercise usually takes place at the end of July, so Taiwan has several
02:46months to prepare its troops, and possibly reservists, and see how else they can improve.
02:52Howard Zhang in Hameokang for Taiwan Plus.