Taiwan increases the length of mandatory military service by 300% (or three-fold) to 1 year.
Imagine MINDEF doing the same: 2-year National Service becomes 6 years.
The new one-year requirement is set to start in 2024. PHOTO: AFP
Yip Wai Yee
Taiwan Correspondent
Dec 27, 2022
TAIPEI – Taiwan extended its compulsory military service from the current four months to one year, as part of efforts to bolster the island’s combat readiness amid rising cross-strait tensions.
“China’s threat has become even more severe since their military drills in August,” President Tsai Ing-wen said at a press conference on Tuesday. “Nobody would want a war… but peace will not fall from the sky.”
The new requirement is set to start in 2024 and will affect all Taiwanese males born on and after Jan 1, 2005.
Conscripts that year are also set to receive a higher pay of NT$26,307 (S$1,151) a month, a big jump from the current NT$6,510.
The changes come as Beijing, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province to be “reunified”, ramps up military pressures on the island considerably in recent months.
After United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in August, which Beijing condemned as an infringement of its territorial integrity, China launched a series of unprecedented military drills around Taiwan, including flying ballistic missiles over the island.
Since then, Chinese warships and warplanes have continued to cross the Taiwan Strait, which separates China and Taiwan, almost daily.
Beijing’s mounting aggression has led to sustained calls in Taiwan to strengthen its military – including, for a start, having longer training programmes for servicemen.
According to a December poll by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation, around 73 per cent of respondents aged 20 years or older said they supported the idea of extending the military service to at least one year.
However, several male teenage students that The Straits Times spoke to said that they were sceptical about how much a lengthened conscription period would help the island in a war.
“In Taiwan, we always say that military service is a complete waste of time because you do not really learn very much,” said 16-year-old Liao Kuo-sen.
“I’ve heard seniors say that they spent their military service cleaning the floor, so would eight more months of that be useful?”
But he has accepted that he will be among the first batch of recruits to undergo the longer service period.
“After what happened in Ukraine, you realise that threats of war can become real, so it was inevitable that there would be some changes to our military programme,” said the high school student.
Critics have long argued that Taiwan’s military service programme, which currently includes bayonet drills, is too old-fashioned for modern warfare.
On Tuesday, Ms Tsai promised improvements to the military service training programme, and said that there will be more shooting exercises and combat training.
The announced changes are a good step in the right direction as they show Taiwan’s resolve, defence experts said.
“Washington and the rest of the international community will strongly question Taiwan’s willingness to defend itself if it didn’t extend the military service period. Taipei would have been viewed as irresponsible,” said Dr Chen Liang-chih from the government-funded Institute for National Defence and Security Research in Taipei.
The military service extension represents a major about-turn for Taiwan, which had gradually reduced the period from two years until it reached the current four months in 2013, as part of moves to rely more heavily on a volunteer force of professional soldiers instead.
However, the island has faced challenges in recruiting enough people to meet its military targets.
According to a Legislative Yuan report in June, Taiwan currently has a professional military force of 162,000, which is 7,000 fewer than the target.
Taiwan’s military manpower challenges will likely exacerbate given the island’s plummeting birth rates.
In 2022, Taiwan’s pool of conscripts is the smallest in a decade – totalling no more than 118,000 – and that number is set to decline further in the years to come.
Taiwan’s estimated fertility rate of just over 1.08 in 2022 is the lowest in the world, based on the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook.
Imagine MINDEF doing the same: 2-year National Service becomes 6 years.
Taiwan extends mandatory 4-month military service to 1 year, raises soldiers’ pay
The new one-year requirement is set to start in 2024. PHOTO: AFP
Yip Wai Yee
Taiwan Correspondent
Dec 27, 2022
TAIPEI – Taiwan extended its compulsory military service from the current four months to one year, as part of efforts to bolster the island’s combat readiness amid rising cross-strait tensions.
“China’s threat has become even more severe since their military drills in August,” President Tsai Ing-wen said at a press conference on Tuesday. “Nobody would want a war… but peace will not fall from the sky.”
The new requirement is set to start in 2024 and will affect all Taiwanese males born on and after Jan 1, 2005.
Conscripts that year are also set to receive a higher pay of NT$26,307 (S$1,151) a month, a big jump from the current NT$6,510.
The changes come as Beijing, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province to be “reunified”, ramps up military pressures on the island considerably in recent months.
After United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in August, which Beijing condemned as an infringement of its territorial integrity, China launched a series of unprecedented military drills around Taiwan, including flying ballistic missiles over the island.
Since then, Chinese warships and warplanes have continued to cross the Taiwan Strait, which separates China and Taiwan, almost daily.
On Sunday, China’s military said it had conducted “strike drills” in the sea and airspace around Taiwan, and on Monday, the island said that at least 71 Chinese air force aircraft had entered its air defence identification zone within 24 hours, the largest reported incursion to date.Beijing’s mounting aggression has led to sustained calls in Taiwan to strengthen its military – including, for a start, having longer training programmes for servicemen.
According to a December poll by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation, around 73 per cent of respondents aged 20 years or older said they supported the idea of extending the military service to at least one year.
However, several male teenage students that The Straits Times spoke to said that they were sceptical about how much a lengthened conscription period would help the island in a war.
“In Taiwan, we always say that military service is a complete waste of time because you do not really learn very much,” said 16-year-old Liao Kuo-sen.
“I’ve heard seniors say that they spent their military service cleaning the floor, so would eight more months of that be useful?”
But he has accepted that he will be among the first batch of recruits to undergo the longer service period.
“After what happened in Ukraine, you realise that threats of war can become real, so it was inevitable that there would be some changes to our military programme,” said the high school student.
Critics have long argued that Taiwan’s military service programme, which currently includes bayonet drills, is too old-fashioned for modern warfare.
On Tuesday, Ms Tsai promised improvements to the military service training programme, and said that there will be more shooting exercises and combat training.
The announced changes are a good step in the right direction as they show Taiwan’s resolve, defence experts said.
“Washington and the rest of the international community will strongly question Taiwan’s willingness to defend itself if it didn’t extend the military service period. Taipei would have been viewed as irresponsible,” said Dr Chen Liang-chih from the government-funded Institute for National Defence and Security Research in Taipei.
The military service extension represents a major about-turn for Taiwan, which had gradually reduced the period from two years until it reached the current four months in 2013, as part of moves to rely more heavily on a volunteer force of professional soldiers instead.
However, the island has faced challenges in recruiting enough people to meet its military targets.
According to a Legislative Yuan report in June, Taiwan currently has a professional military force of 162,000, which is 7,000 fewer than the target.
Taiwan’s military manpower challenges will likely exacerbate given the island’s plummeting birth rates.
In 2022, Taiwan’s pool of conscripts is the smallest in a decade – totalling no more than 118,000 – and that number is set to decline further in the years to come.
Taiwan’s estimated fertility rate of just over 1.08 in 2022 is the lowest in the world, based on the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook.
