This isn't good:
Even as the military refits itself with flashy U.S. arms purchases, such as M1 Abrams tanks and F-16V fighter jets, its front-line units are hollowed out, and the entire reserve system is so dysfunctional that few experts or serving military personnel believe it can make a real military contribution in the event of a war. These problems are well documented but continue to be downplayed, if not outright ignored, by Taiwan’s political leadership—and there is no clear plan to solve the crisis.
Taiwanese combat units are drained as career soldiers move to easier but equally compensated rear echelon jobs.
And the reserves are a joke.
For all I know, the new army is better than the old army.
And it is easier to see our ally's problems than it is to see China's problems behind their own flashy arms. But don't tell me that China can't throw an army across the Taiwan Strait.
If the Taiwanese are as bad as that article portrays and lack the will to fight and die to keep the PLA off the island, getting ashore will be more than half the job of the PLA.
Let's hope that somebody over here is prodding the Taiwanese to fix these problems from the botched transition from conscription to volunteer troops.
