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Taiwan
ChinaPolitics

Taiwan’s new military outsourcing plan: a pragmatic fix or security risk?

The island hopes contractors at military academies will free up personnel for combat missions, but critics raise infiltration concerns

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Private guards will take over routine duties at nine military academy sites in Taiwan under an outsourcing pilot programme. Photo: EPA
Lawrence Chungin Taipei
Taiwan’s armed forces plan to outsource guard duties at military academies to private security firms in a pilot programme aimed at freeing up limited personnel for core combat missions.
But the plan has triggered concerns that handing frontline access to civilian contractors could create new security vulnerabilities as the island grapples with a rise in espionage cases that the Taiwanese government claims are linked to Beijing.

Under the two-stage programme, private guards will take over routine duties at nine military academy sites, including identity and vehicle checks, visitor registration and general access control, according to the island’s defence ministry on Monday.

The first phase will begin on September 1 at five sites – the National Defence University’s three campuses, the army’s military academy and the naval academy.

Four more sites – the Army Academy, two Air Force Institute of Technology campuses and Chung Cheng Armed Forces Preparatory School – will join the programme from January 1 next year.

The ministry said the scheme was intended to ease the military’s manpower burden and allow troops to return to their units to focus on combat training and core missions.

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