Most people perceive military discipline as lax: survey

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/03
By: Tai Ya-chen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, July 3 (CNA) Over 70 percent of Taiwanese people believe that military discipline has become lax, as shown by a missile blunder that caused one civilian death and three injured July 1, according to a Taiwan Thinktank survey released Sunday.

A locally-developed anti-ship Hsiung Feng III missile was launched by mistake from a Chinchiang-class corvette at Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at 8:15 a.m. Friday, when the Navy was examining and testing the Hsiung Feng III missile system.

The missile hit the fishing boat “Hsiang Li Sheng” (翔利昇), which was at estimated 40 nautical miles from the harbor, located in southern Taiwan, about two minutes after it was fired. The skipper, Huang Wen-chung (黃文忠), died during the strike, which wounded three other crew members on board.

The survey shows that 74.6 percent of the respondents said they agree that the fatal accident reflects slack military discipline, while 16.8 percent expressed disagreement with the idea.    [FULL  STORY]