TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The civil defense manuals for some of Taiwan's counties and cities have been found to erroneously depict Taiwanese soldiers carrying the AK-47 or People's Liberation Army (PLA) weapons.
After receiving criticism for its 2022 civil defense handbook, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) issued a new version in June, only to be criticized again for showing cartoonish images of mainly phased-out PLA uniforms. At least three county and city versions derived from the MND manual are now also drawing flak for showing Taiwanese soldiers with the wrong weapons, reported Liberty Times.
All counties and cities in Taiwan have been producing county and city versions of the MND handbook. Although Taitung County has yet to produce its version,the MND has published links to handbooks of the rest of Taiwan's 21 counties and cities on its website for the public to download and use.
Taiwanese soldier seen holding AK-47 (left). (Yunlin County Government screenshot)
However, some people have discovered that the cover picture of the Yunlin County brochure shows a cartoon of a Taiwanese soldier holding what appears to be a cartoon AK-47 rifle, a rifle designed in the Soviet Union that has never been used by the Taiwanese military.
The standard issue rifle for Taiwanese troops is the T91 assault rifle, which combines elements of the American M-16 and AR-18. In the Yilan County handbook another cartoon trooper is carrying what could be a cartoon AK-47 and waving at another soldier on what may resemble a cartoon of a Soviet-designed BTR-80 armored personnel carrier (APC).
Soldier in background holds AK-47 facing friend on Sovient APC. (Yunlin County Government screenshot)
In the Keelung City handbook, the tank shown in the cartoon resembles an M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, but the first shipments of that tank are not slated to arrive in Taiwan until 2024, while it is backed up by a soldier carrying an AK-47. Two other troops in front of the tank are depicted running to the battlefield as they carry what appear to be PLA QBZ-191 automatic rifles.
In response, the Civil Affairs Office of the Yunlin County Government said the publisher may not have paid proper attention when taking images from the Internet, and may not have understood the different types of firearms. The county government said that it will first remove the erroneous 2022 version from the internet.
Soldiers carry QBZ-191 (left), M1 Abrams tank, and soldier weilds AK-47. (Keelung County Government screenshot)
The Civil Affairs Office of the Keelung City Government said that the manual has been reviewed by the MND and will be posted online only after confirmation that there were no issues. It pledged to verify with the military, and if any errors are found, the handbook will be taken offline and revised.
The Yilan County Government stated that the illustrations were designed by a graphic design company. The illustrations were selected from free foreign image websites and then adjusted for the handbook. It said the link to the manual has been removed and the publisher has been asked to redesign and correct it.
Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research Acting Deputy CEO Shen Ming-shih (沈明室) told Liberty Times that this situation likely resulted from an oversight during the graphic design process.
Shen said that this highlights the need for improving public education on national defense in the future. If official publications continue to misuse imagery of the Chinese military and maintain the "good enough" mentality it could result in incorrect information and lead to cognitive confusion and impact the nation's psychological warfare capabilities.
