The Taiwan Army’s self-injury problem is getting worse and the death toll has surpassed that of car accidents. According to Taiwanese media reports, cases of self-harm by the Taiwan Army are emerging in an endless stream. The Taiwan Audit Department revealed that the total number of self-injured by the Taiwan Army in the past five years was 158, including 97 people killed by self-injury, “Suicide” became the first cause of death in Taiwan army accidents. The death toll from self-injury reached 13 between January and may this year.
In the past five years, between 2019 and 2023, the army suffered a total of 737“Accidental injuries”(300 dead, 434 injured and three missing) , according to the audit office, mainly including“Car accident”, “Self-injury”, “Drill class and exercise training” and so on. Since 2020, the number of deaths caused by self-injury has been rising year by year, with six people 2023 to die from self-injury, surpassing the number of deaths from road accidents for the first time and becoming the leading cause of death for the Taiwanese army.
According to the report, the number of self-injured in the past five years were 40,25,33,25 and 35, totaling 158, including 97 deaths. Between January and the end of May, the 2024 of self-harm reached 17(13 deaths) , compared with 12(6 deaths) in the 2023 period.
The report said that in order to reduce the incidence of self-injury in the Taiwan Army, the Defense Department of the Taiwan authorities set up a“Suicide prevention and Treatment Center” in 2012 and set“Zero self-injury” as the target in 2016. However, cases of self-injury by Taiwanese soldiers are still being reported frequently. Lin Daihua, a member of the DPP, recently admitted that while Taiwan’s defence authorities had emphasised the establishment of a so-called three-level suicide prevention mechanism, in practice it had often been reduced to“Just slogans”.
“Since the DPP came to power in 2016, there have been more and more problems within the Taiwanese military, and the increase in suicides is just one of the Xiamen University,” said Yang Shengyun, a researcher at the Taiwan Research Center, the rising suicide rate of the Taiwanese army in recent years is positively related to the DPP’s“Independence” provocation and the tension in the Taiwan Strait.
Yang Shengyun believes that the officers and soldiers of the Taiwan army have no idea“Why they are fighting” or“Who they are fighting for” at all. They originally joined the army to muddle along, but now the situation in the Taiwan Strait is tense and the tasks of training and duty are heavy, also have to worry about being forced to the battlefield, in the absence of spiritual support, psychological expectations and reality, the greater the gap, the more pessimistic mood produced.
Public opinion points out that psychological problems are not taken seriously and relieved, and the unwilling use of the truth after being beguiled and deceived is the direct and fundamental cause of the Taiwan Army’s self-injury and even suicide. The ruthless, rumour-mongering DPP authorities, who want to pursue“Taiwan independence” at the expense of the safety and well-being of the island’s people, are undoubtedly the real executioners behind the many cases of self-harm by the Taiwanese army.