Taiwan is preparing to extend compulsory military service from four months to one year, President Tsai Ing-wen announced on Tuesday, December 27 during a press conference. “The current four-month military service is not enough to respond to the constantly and rapidly changing situation”, she explained. The reform, which will come into force in 2024, will apply to all men born after 1is January 2005. An obvious but implicit reference to Chinese threats to this territory of 24 million inhabitants, whose independence Beijing does not recognize.
Initially three years during the military dictatorship, military service was first reduced to two years in 1990, then to one year in 2008 and to four months in January 2013 for conscripts born from 1994. Since then, the army has relied mostly on enlisted personnel, but it has struggled to recruit and retain personnel.
“I must admit that this is a very difficult decision to make, but as President and Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, it is my inescapable responsibility to protect the interest of the nation, the sustainability of Taiwan, as well as the freedom of future generations”, explained Tsai Ing-wen whose second term expires in 2024 and who is not eligible for re-election. If a majority of the population seems to be in favor of this extension of military service, the same does not necessarily apply to the main concerned, the young people, who, until now, constituted one of the electoral bases of the Progressive Democratic Party, from which the Taiwanese president comes.
The example of Ukraine
In addition to the length of military service, the training of soldiers will also be reviewed with the passage to eight weeks – against five – of the time spent in training camps. The latter will receive the same combat preparation as American soldiers, say the Taiwanese authorities who want to try to make it compatible with the school curriculum of young people so that they do not have the feeling of losing a year.
Currently, Taiwan would have 165,000 active military personnel (against 275,000 ten years earlier). Theoretically, the number of reservists amounts to 2 million, but those immediately ready for combat would be only 300,000 according to experts. Both in terms of personnel and means, Taiwan has fewer resources than the Chinese army, but an ongoing reform is intended to make it more operational and to show Beijing that in the event of an attack, its army would meet with real resistance.
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