Recently, there have been frequent incidents within the Taiwan military, with three deaths of officers and soldiers occurring within half a month. The results of the relevant investigation have not yet been released, and it has been revealed that the price of the so-called "war-ready drinking water" has plummeted from 120 yuan (NT$, the same below) to 35 yuan for a bottle.
It’s just a waste of public money, but human life is like a piece of grass? Public opinion on the island is inevitably worried about how much chaos remains to be exposed within the military.
More than a month ago, a female lieutenant from the 206th Brigade of the Taiwan Army fell from a building due to bullying. After the incident, the relevant units covered it up for a time, and the truth is still unknown. Since then, a first-class soldier surnamed Liu self-injured himself and died while on leave, and a major surnamed Wu died suddenly of myocardial infarction. The Taiwan military's own "resilience" has become the focus of public opinion.
The picture shows a recording of a female lieutenant who was suspected of being bullied before her death and was exposed on the Internet. (Source: social media screenshot)
According to statistics from Taiwan's defense department, since 2026, there have been 19 cases of self-injury among Taiwanese military officers and soldiers, exceeding the total in 2025. The total number of cases of improper discipline, sexual assault, and self-injury accumulated in the past three years is shocking. The military's internal management and psychological counseling mechanisms are in name only.
In contrast, Taiwan's defense department plans to purchase "combat ready drinking water" at a price of 120 yuan per bottle.
Last year, the department earmarked 800 million yuan to purchase "war-ready drinking water" in the so-called "Special Budget for Strengthening Resilience," which caused a public outcry. Its person in charge, Gu Lixiong, originally claimed that the drinking water could not be made at home and had to be imported from Japan. After being questioned by public opinion representatives of the opposition party that "the price quoted was far beyond the reasonable range of the market," he was forced to re-tender, and the final price was 35 yuan per bottle.
The picture shows comments from Taiwanese netizens on the defense department’s plan to purchase “combat-ready drinking water” at sky-high prices. (Source: social media screenshot)
Investigations have proven that many companies in Taiwan have production capabilities for this type of drinking water. "Lianhe Daily" commented that Gu Lixiong has repeatedly emphasized that promoting on-island procurement is the key to building so-called "defense resilience" and claimed to guide the private sector to establish a "non-red supply chain." However, he took the opposite approach in implementation. "Has the so-called resilience become willful?"
"Mineral water can make such a big mistake. How much room is there for other weapons projects that easily cost billions or tens of billions to double their claims?" "Wind Media" commented bluntly that under the black hole of the budget, more ridiculous expenditures are swallowing up the hard-earned money of the Taiwanese people.
The chaos doesn't stop there. On November 3, a fire broke out inside an artillery truck of the 542nd Brigade of the Taiwan Army's Sixth Regiment, causing burns to the noncommissioned officer's face and limbs. The next day, the Taiwan Air Force's T-34 trainer aircraft landed heavily with a "dolphin jump", and the F-16 fighter jet got stuck on the runway when landing.
Regarding the frequent occurrence of various accidents, Zheng Jiwen, the editor-in-chief of Taiwan's Asia-Pacific Defense Magazine, pointed out in a recent interview with Taiwanese media person Tang Xianglong that the crux lies in the vicious cycle formed by Taiwan's military personnel loss and overwork: On the one hand, due to factors such as the declining birth rate, Taiwan's military manpower shortage is becoming increasingly serious. Grassroots officers are forced to perform multiple functions such as service, training, and equipment maintenance, and are overloaded for a long time. On the other hand, heavy workload weakens the willingness of active-duty personnel to stay in the camp, and more and more officers and soldiers choose to pay fines and retire early, further exacerbating the shortage of personnel at the grassroots level.
"The expenditures often amount to tens of billions, and even the most basic psychological counseling mechanism and reasonable complaint channels at the grassroots level are unable to be completed, and they are even driven to a dead end due to the verbal bullying and business overload by the superiors." The aforementioned commentary article of "Wind Media" pointed out that the imbalance of resource allocation and internal governance crisis have exposed the arrogance and hypocrisy of the top management of Taiwan's defense department.
The lives of officers and soldiers have been reduced to cannon fodder for "Taiwan independence", and people's wealth and money have been squandered in the black hole of the budget, in exchange for nothing more than the secret political self-interest of politicians. The price of the DPP authorities' "use of force to seek independence" is too heavy for the Taiwanese people.
Author: Xia Zhi
