Technology and National Defense Transform in Lockstep

Technology and National Defense Transform in Lockstep
China Times editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China)
A Translation
December 31, 2013

Summary: The New Year is almost here. But last year's problems linger. Can a stifled economy be revived? Can a new industrial policy be found? Can a strategy for peaceful development be implemented, despite manpower shortages under a volunteer military? Some demand the restoration of military conscription or increasing pay for military volunteers. We recommend an integrated national strategy. We recommend high-tech industrial transformation and high-tech national defense, combined with industrial policy, to transform the military. 

Full text below:

The New Year is almost here. But last year's problems linger. Can a stifled economy be revived? Can a new industrial policy be found? Can a strategy for peaceful development be implemented, despite manpower shortages under a volunteer military? Some demand the restoration of military conscription or increasing pay for military volunteers. We recommend an integrated national strategy. We recommend high-tech industrial transformation and high-tech national defense, combined with industrial policy, to transform the military. 

Since the 1980s, the strategy of the Republic of China government has been to make massive investments in the information, semiconductor, communications, and flat panel industries. These have made us critical to the global technology industry. These industries focus on the manufacture of hardware and the training of large numbers of hardware professionals. They have enabled Taiwan to become a leading manufacturer of high-tech products. They have significantly reduced the cost of hardware manufacture. They have enabled consumers around the world to purchase a wide range of inexpensive yet high quality 3C products.

But Taiwan's technology industry is export-oriented. This makes it susceptible to fluctuations in the international economy. The U.S. financial crisis erupted in 2008, then spread. The recession impacted the major countries of Europe and America. Dramatically reduced demand led to a serious decline in technology industry exports and to corporate layoffs. Unpaid leave resulted in massive unemployment. Meanwhile, vendors on Taiwan have sought to reduce costs by increasing production efficiency. This means reducing direct labor costs, plant costs, and pollution control costs. The result has been the migration of large numbers of industries westward, to the Mainland. Some of the industries that stayed have discharged untreated sewage undergroundsewage. The documentary film "Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above" was heart-breaking. As a result, Taiwan has lost many job opportunities. Those remaining are not enough to go around. Once beautiful rivers have become polluted. Taiwan's preoccupation with hardware must be changed.

The International Information Corporation (IDC) recently issued its technology industry forecast for the coming year. The industry will focus on the four pillars of "third platform" development. They are mobile computing, cloud based services , Big Data, and social networking. The first platform was mainframes. The second platform was terminals, PCs, and platforms for the Internet Age. The third platform is today's tablets and mobile phone network applications. Coincidentally, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) recently announced its "five technologies for the next five years." They include future classrooms, combined online and bricks and mortar retailing, DNA tailored health care, digital security, and smart cities. These five technologies will change our lives. They will be connected to Internet clouds and Big Data. Viat management and interactive sensors they will integrate learning, trade, health, safety, and services. They will create a more efficient, more convenient environment in which we can live our lives.

As we all know, IBM once sold machines, including computers. Now it sells software and services. Its business is thriving. IBM believes that when software evolves to where it can think like the human brain, computing power and cloud data storage will enable Big Data to provide omnipresent creative power. In other words, the computer will no longer be just a computer. It will be smarter and more customized. It will interact with people, helping us to deal with problems and providing us with advice. The current IOT (Internet of Things) is merely a starting point. Smart sensors, biometric technology, and ubiquitous computing, will do more than string together a network to exchange information. It will enable hardware and hardware and hardware and people to communicate with each other. It will increasingly automate the environment.

Now let us return to the matter of national defense. Gulf War air strikes began on January 17, 1991. The 28 countries of the US-led coalition conducted 38 days of air attacks. They used missiles and smart bombs with unparalleled precision. Iraq's military facilities, tanks, air-raid shelters, bunkers, and airports were destroyed. The era of precision munitions was upon us. War no longer hingee on large-scale ground war manpower. It hinged on information. Attack required the use of precision-guided weapons technology to automatically identify their targets. The trend was toward increased target variety and improved strike accuracy. Defense required a variety of reconnaissance and surveillance technologies, advanced radar, space electronic defensive warfare, and electromagnetic pulse technology. These automatically counter enemy threats, increase self-defense capability, and create an integrated defense network.

National defense requires state of the art "short, small, light, thin" networked, automated, precision, stealth, unmanned technologies. It does not require spending money supporting legions of dumb grunts.

This is where high-tech industries and national defense are headed. Industrial policy and national defense must be integrated. We urgently need software talent to undertake high-tech software and defense management, We must enter the new world of man machine integration. These trends will provide job opportunities on Taiwan. IT hardware is the ROC's national strength. Taiwan lacks talent in software applications and services. Taiwan must not fixate on hardware at the expense of software. It must do both. This is the proper strategy for our future development.

社論－科技與國防同步轉型：軟硬通吃
    2013-12-31 01:15
    中國時報
    本報訊

　新年即將來到，過去一年惱人的問題卻依然揮不去。悶經濟應如何突破？產業政策如何找到新方向？實現國家和平發展策略的國防募兵制找不足夠兵源，怎麼辦？在各方紛紛主張恢復徵兵制或大力砸錢提高志願役待遇之時，我們提出一個整合性的國家戰略建議：推動高科技產業轉型軟體，及高科技國防力量，結合產業政策實現國軍轉型。

　台灣自1980年代後在政府策略性政策的導引下，投入大量資源發展資訊、半導體、通訊及面板等產業，在全世界科技產業取得關鍵性地位，尤其這些產業側重硬體的製造，培養大量的硬體人才，讓台灣廠商成為高科技產品製造業的龍頭，有效的大量減低硬體製造成本，讓全世界的消費者享用各式廉價但品質優異的3C產品。

　但正因為台灣科技產業為外銷導向，易受國際景氣波動影響。2008年美國金融海嘯爆發並擴大蔓延，歐美主要國家經濟衰退，有效需求大減，造成我國科技產業出口嚴重萎縮，企業裁員、實施無薪假造成大量失業等問題。另方面，為講求效率生產，我們的廠商一直尋找如何降低成本的方法：減低直接人工成本、土地廠房的租金成本，並盡量規避汙染防治成本的內部化。造成大量的產業西進到中國大陸；沒有走的有些甚至利用暗管排放未處理的汙水。《看見台灣》紀錄片真是道盡了無比的傷痛。因此台灣的勞工就業機會減少了，僧多粥少地搶食碩果僅存的工作機會，有些美好的河川也就變了色。這些結果，在在顯示台灣產業注重硬體的思維亟需進行調整。

　國際資訊公司（IDC）近日對明年科技產業提出趨勢預測，認為整個產業的前景將環繞在行動運算、雲端服務、海量資料、社群網站這四大支柱所形成的「第三平台」發展。所謂的第三平台是指相對於第一平台的大型主機及終端機的平台，個人PC以及互聯網為主的網路時代的第二平台，演變到今天的平板、手機網路行動App的新模式。無獨有偶，國際商業機器公司（IBM）最近公布未來5年的五大科技：未來的教室、虛實一體商店、DNA客製化醫療、數位警衛與智慧城市將改變我們的生活。這5項科技都是結合連接網路的雲端及海量資料庫，再透過管理及各式感應器互動，將學習、交易、健康、安全與服務融合一起，創造更有效率、更方便的環境，讓我們享受生活。

　眾所周知，IBM過去是賣機器、賣電腦，但現在是賣軟體、賣服務，業績還蒸蒸日上。IBM認為，當軟體進化到以類似人腦方式「思考」的同時，電腦的運算能力與儲存於雲端的大量資訊將使機器得以在各處各地無所不在地提供創意動力。換句話說，未來電腦不再是計算機，而是變得越來越聰明與客製化，與人互動，進而幫助我們處理難題，並給予正確建議。也因此現在正在發展的物聯網（Internet of Things）只是個起點。通過智慧感應、識別辨認技術與普適計算，不只是把東西串成一個網路交換資料而已，而是要讓設備和設備之間，設備與人之間可以互相溝通，更可以讓生活環境更加自動化。

　回到國防的討論上面，我們知道，從1991年1月17日的波斯灣戰爭空中攻擊開始，以美國為首的28國聯軍在38天的空中攻擊中，用精準無比的飛彈、炸彈和各式武器，把伊拉克的軍事建築、戰車、防空洞、堡壘、機場等一一摧毀，開啟精準武器時代的來臨。現在的戰爭，已經不是大規模人力的地面部隊打仗，而是全面資訊化作戰。打擊上要利用精確導引武器技術自動判讀目標，朝向增大射種、提高命中精度；防衛上要採偵察與監視技術的多種探測模式，利用先進雷達、太空電子防衛戰、電磁脈衝等技術，進行自動對敵威脅反制，增加自我防衛的能力及建立整合性的防禦網。

　可見國防的發展一定要符合網路化、自動化、精確化、隱形化、無人化、短小輕薄的時代趨勢，絕不是花大錢養一大堆傳統頭腦空空的肌肉男女大兵。

　準此，可以看到高科技產業與國防的趨勢有多類似。我們認為未來的產業政策及國防一定要結合。我們急需各式的軟體人才，做高科技軟體與國防管理，來搶進人機合一的新世界。從這些趨勢，我們也看到台灣的機會。IT硬體是我們國家的強項，台灣所欠缺的是應用程式及服務的軟體人才。台灣不該再吃硬不吃軟，「軟硬通吃」是台灣未來發展的好策略。