General Staff Headquarters, MND: In charge of the planning and supervision of joint war activities, political warfare, personnel, military intelligence, operations, education and training, logistics, organization and equipment calibration, communications, military archives management, and medical services, the General Staff Headquarters, MND contains the Office of the Chief of the General Staff; the Department of Supervision and Inspection; the General Political Warfare Department; Offices of the Deputy Chiefs of the General Staff for Personnel, Intelligence, Operations, Logistics, and Planning; the Bureau of Communications and Electronics; the Military History and Translation Bureau; the Military Medical Bureau; and the General Affairs Bureau.

Combined Services Force General Headquarters: The Combined Services Force General Headquarters is in charge of ordinance, military maps, and communication equipment for the ROC Armed Forces. It also provides support and services commonly needed by all Armed Forces services, such as finance, surveying, engineering, rear echelon administration, purchase and procurement, and armament appraisal and testing.

Armed Forces Reserve Command: Shortly after the ROC government announced the lifting of the Emergency Decree and the termination of the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion , the Taiwan Garrison General Headquarters (TGGH) was deactivated, and two new commands were created to assume partial responsibility for tasks formerly performed by the TGGH: the Armed Forces Reserve Command (AFRC), which is mainly in charge of reservist management and mobilization affairs; and the Coast Guard Command (CGC), responsible for matters of coastal security.

Officers in the ROC military generally come from three backgrounds. They might be graduates of military academies who become career officers, graduates of different specialized military schools who serve shorter terms of duty, or college graduates who have passed a written test to become reserve officers. Approximately 15 percent of the officers commissioned each year are graduates from different military academies; another 45 percent are graduates of specialized military schools; and the remaining 40 percent are reserve officers. The ratio of officers to NCOs is currently 1:2.4, while that to enlisted men is 1:2.6. Thus, the ratio of officers to soldiers as a whole in the ROC Armed Forces is around 1:5, which is close to the 1:6 ratio of the US Armed Forces, and almost equals that of the Japanese Self-Defence Force (1:4.98).

NCOs constitute the backbone of basic units of the Armed Forces, and are increasingly depended upon to train troops and develop their combat performance. In recent years, however, most senior NCOs have retired, leaving the current proportion of career NCOs too low and the percentage of NCO reservists in service too high. Reservists are on active duty for a very limited period of time, making it difficult for them to keep up with changes in the operation and maintenance of ever-more sophisticated weapons and equipment. Solutions to this problem lie in reconfiguring the NCO organizational structure and recruiting new NCOs.

The Military Service Law of the ROC stipulates that all males in the Republic of China shall fulfil military service. Article 3 of the law states: "Male persons shall be liable for military service on January 1 of the year immediately following the year during which they reach the age of 18, and shall no longer be drafted for service beginning on December 31 of the year during which they reach the age of 45." Citizens who have been sentenced to imprisonment for longer than seven years are prohibited from entering the military. Under the Military Service Law, military conscription is administered jointly by the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of the Interior . The former is responsible for securing an adequate number of conscripts and training them, while the latter determines the sources of the conscripts and ensures their rights and benefits. Generally, conscripts undergo a minimum of two months of basic training before receiving their 22-month unit assignments. Male senior high, vocational high, and college students whose studies would be interrupted by military conscription can defer their induction until after graduation. Students who are admitted to a university or college undergo two months of basic training in the summer before their freshman year. Upon graduation, they re-enter the military to fulfil the remainder of their two-year commitment. Young men in poor health are exempt from military conscription. Those in average health may serve in the National Guard . Draftees from impoverished families may apply for service in this unit, giving them reserve status and allowing them to stay with their families. In addition, the only son of parents who are over seventy may also apply for National Guard service to fulfil his military obligation.

The ROC defence strategy calls for maintaining a minimum force in peacetime and mobilizing a large number of troops in the event of war. The reservist system plays a key role in such a policy by facilitating instantaneous mobilization and instant combat readiness. At present, registered reservists in the ROC amount to about 3.8 million persons, or more than 18 percent of the general population. After a man is discharged from active duty, he must report to his local military reserve unit, a subunit under the Armed Forces Reserve Command. Reservists are organized into different units according to their military occupational specialty (MOS). Since a prolonged mobilization recall might adversely affect both the livelihood of a reservist and the overall economic development of the country, annual reservist training is usually conducted through recalls. An MOS refresher training course is conducted, and each reservist is notified of his unit combat mission and relative location.

Research and development of national defence technology is often in direct proportion to the degree of a nation's industrialization. While the ROC industrial sector has made considerable progress over the past decade, most of it has in fact been confined to machining components and light manufacturing. The MND has long made use of the National Defence Industrial Development Fund to assist public and private enterprises in cultivating qualified technical personnel and purchasing facilities, transferring advanced technology, and developing a more sophisticated production base that one day promises a fully self-reliant defence industry. The MND has issued the Defence Science and Technology Development Plan to strengthen cooperation between the academic and industrial sectors, and has, along with several cabinet-level institutions such as the National Science Council , the Ministry of Education , and the Ministry of Economic Affairs , set up the Executive Committee for the Development of Defence Science and Technology (ECDDST). With its two subdivisions, the Academic Cooperation Group and the Industrial Cooperation Group , the ECDDST taps academic resources for researching defence technology and makes use of the industrial sector to develop and manufacture weaponry and armaments.

The NSB Organic Law is based on the principle of "separating intelligence functions from law enforcement." It authorizes the NSB to integrate and coordinate matters concerning national security intelligence work, set up a viable framework for national intelligence operations, as well as compile and evaluate strategic information that has a direct bearing on national security. The intelligence is forwarded to national policy-makers and other relevant authorities. Legally authorized law enforcement organs are charged with the maintenance of social order. The setting up and functioning of this mechanism fall in line with intelligence units in democratically advanced countries. In view of the unique features and actual requirements of intelligence work, several articles are stipulated in the NSB's Organic Law: The NSB is empowered to coordinate with competent authorities about providing needed cover to assist certain intelligence operations. Intelligence information and its sources shall be kept confidential, unless otherwise authorized by the NSB. The NSB's annual budget estimates shall be treated confidentially. In the wake of closed-door screening by legislators, the budget in question shall be concealed in those of other government agencies. It is the National Security Bureau's duty to keep abreast with the latest developments in the international community, mainland China, and Taiwan, so as to safeguard the stability and prosperity of Taiwan and fulfil its responsibilities of collecting and assessing intelligence of strategic importance to national security. As stipulated by the NSB's Organic Law, the Bureau is authorized to integrate, coordinate and support national security-related intelligence operations conducted by various functional organizations within the intelligence and law enforcement community.

In addition to managing intelligence relevant to national security, it also takes charge of planning special tasks and is responsible for guiding, coordinating, and supporting the intelligence affairs of the Military Intelligence Bureau of the National Defence Ministry, the Telecommunications Development Division, the Coastal Defence Headquarters, the Military Police Headquarters, the National Police Administration of the Interior Ministry, and the Investigation Bureau of the Justice Ministry. This is also a special feature of the NSB since martial law was lifted. As result of institutionalising operations, the NSB now has six divisions - divisions in charge of international intelligence, intelligence about mainland China, intelligence relevant to Taiwan's security, analysis of the nation's strategic intelligence, scientific and technological intelligence and telecommunications security, and control and development of secret codes and facilities.

The NSB also runs the Coordination Meeting for National Security Intelligence (CMNSI) through concerted efforts with other related branches of the government so as to integrate intelligence resources and assets. According to Article 2 and 17 of the Organic Law of the NSB, the NSB is authorized to convene CMNSI to integrate, counsel, coordinate and support the overall security intelligence efforts for national security and development. The Meeting is presided over by the Director General of the NSB and attended by heads of the concerned intelligence and law enforcement agencies, while individuals from other related organizations will attend the Meeting upon invitation if deemed necessary. The CMNSI is in charge of planning, coordinating, and providing support for the nation's overall intelligence efforts targeting national security. Structurally, the CMNSI is divided into four functional coordination meetings: Coordination Meeting for International Operations (SMIO), Coordination Meeting for Operations in Mainland China (CMOMC), Coordination Meeting for Operations in the Taiwan Region (CMOTR), Coordination Meeting for the Collection of Technological Intelligence (CMCTI).