Taiwan will extend its compulsory military service from four months to a year starting in 2024, President Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday, as the self-ruled island faces China's military, diplomatic, and trade pressures. Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949 during a civil war, is claimed by China. The longer military service applies to men born after 2005 and will start Jan. 1, 2024, per the AP. Those born before 2005 will continue to serve four months, but under a revamped training curriculum aimed at strengthening the island's reserve forces. "No one wants war," Tsai said. "This is true of Taiwan's government and people, and the global community, but peace does not come from the sky, and Taiwan is at the front lines of the expansion of authoritarianism."
Taiwan's current four-month-long military conscription requirement was widely panned by the public as being too short and not providing the training that professional soldiers actually need. The government had slashed the period from a year to four months in 2017 as it was transitioning the army into an all-volunteer corps. Of Taiwan's 188,000-person military, 90% are volunteers and 10% are men doing their required four months of service. The new plan would put those serving out a yearlong military service in a more defensive role of "homeland defense," with front-line battle roles being reserved for those who choose to opt in, according to the outlined plan. The homeland defense role would be akin to the US National Guard, says Arthur Zhin-Sheng Wang, a defense expert at Taiwan's Central Police University.
A poll from the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation in December found that among Taiwanese adults, 73.2% said they'd support a one-year military service. That support was across party lines, the survey found, spanning the Democratic Progressive Party and the more China-friendly Nationalist Party. But among those closest to military service age, support has waned. Among the youngest age group, those 20-24, only 35.6% said they'd support an extension. The decades-old threat of invasion by China has sharpened since Beijing cut off communications with Taiwan's government after the 2016 election of Tsai, who is seen as pro-independence. China's People's Liberation Army in particular has stepped up its military harassment, sending fighter planes and navy vessels toward Taiwan on a near-daily basis in recent years.
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