Chief of staff should not have to answer lawmaker questions: Lee Hsi-min

Taipei, June 25 (CNA) Former Chief of the General Staff Lee Hsi-min (李喜明) on Tuesday spoke out against the chief of the general staff being questioned by lawmakers, saying that such a move could interfere with the training and command of the military.

"I don't agree with the chief of the general staff being asked to answer questions at the Legislative Yuan, which is concerned with defense policies and should not interfere with the training of troops," Lee said at a news conference held by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation.

Lee was responding to a reporter's request for comment on Chief of the General Staff Mei Chia-shu's (梅家樹) scheduled appearance at the Legislature on Wednesday where Mei is expected to answer lawmakers' questions about this year's Han Kuang military exercises which are set to take place from July 22 to July 26.

It will be the first time in 26 years that a chief of the general staff is questioned by lawmakers at the Legislative Yuan since then-chief of staff Tang Fei (唐飛) did so in 1998.

During Tang's time as chief of staff, military administration and command were separate, which meant that the chief of the general staff was in charge of everything from staffing, to budget and command, Lee said.

However, after the National Defense Act and the Organization Act of the Ministry of National Defense were promulgated in January 2000, those two tasks are now the responsibility of the defense minister, who should be able to answer all questions from lawmakers, he said.

The chief of the general staff may not have as much power or influence as the defense minister during peacetime, but he leads the armed forces in wartime, he said.

His time, therefore, would be better spent planning how to lead the armed forces to victory rather than on politics, and if he is aggressively challenged by lawmakers that could compromise his authority, Lee said.

Asked to comment on media reports that there will be "no scenarios" during this year's Han Kuang drills, Lee said the exercises will still have a "framework," without which they would lack focus and it would be difficult to judge their effectiveness.

For example, he said, the framework could be "anti-amphibious landing," but within this framework, there would be no "scenarios" involving what types of aircraft or vessels the opposing force use.

The previous drills were "terrible" because they were scripted and followed a plot in which an "enemy" attacked and the defensive side responded, he said.

Asked to comment on one of the exercises' objectives being to boost the ability of the armed forces to operate with a decentralized command, Lee said, such drills are "absolutely necessary."

Citing the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Lee said part of the reason why there have been so many casualties among high-ranking Russian military officers is the country's reliance on a centralized command.

Command centers can be destroyed by enemy attacks during war, and a military risks becoming rudderless if it cannot engage in decentralized command, he said.

"The more decentralization extends to junior ranks, the more a military has combat flexibility and the more lethal it is," Lee said.