MELBOURNE: Taiwan’s decision on Tuesday (Dec 27) to extend its mandatory military service to one year, reversing a decision taken by its previous government, is acknowledgement that the ramifications of what was a political decision are coming home to roost.
Announcing the decision, President Tsai Ing-wen acknowledged that “the current four-month military service is not enough to meet the fast and ever-changing situation” with China’s “intimidation and threats against Taiwan are getting more obvious”.
The length of service for Taiwanese conscripts was shortened from one year to four months by former president Ma Ying-jeou in 2013, who had plans for Taiwan to transition to an all-volunteer force despite China’s military already strengthening drastically at the time.
Since then, Taiwan’s military has struggled to meet recruitment targets, with its armed forces having 162,000 soldiers in its ranks as of June this year – 7,000 short of its target. This has been blamed in part due to a declining birth rate, although the reluctance of its youth to pursue a military career has also been cited as a reason.
As it is, the Taiwanese armed forces are already substantially weaker than China’s People’s Liberation Army, the latter having undergone a massive military modernisation programme over the past two decades that has seen it quantitatively, and arguably qualitatively, superior compared to its counterpart across the Taiwan Strait.
