A group of college students visited legislative caucuses yesterday morning, seeking lawmakers' endorsement of pushing the passage of a draft bill creating a fully professional military service before October this year and fully replacing the draft system for the recruitment of soldiers by 2008.
While Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers refused to sign the endorsement paper, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) lawmakers gave their signatures. Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers said that they only approved a draft system integrating the enlistment and voluntary enrollment systems.
Chung Ming-hung (鍾明宏), convener of the Alliance of Conscription Reform, said that their campaign was not aimed at personal gain.
"Take myself for example, I won't benefit from the new draft system because I'm about to graduate this summer and be enlisted," Chung said.
"I'm not afraid of doing the military service nor abhor the system. I just wish the draft system would not only elevate the quality of the armed forces but also meet the practical requirements of every individual."
Chung, a 24-year-old senior majoring in political science at the National Taiwan University, said that there are three reasons the group wished to push for a change to the draft system.
First, men eligible for the compulsory military service hesitate to find a job before joining the military.
Second, the voluntary enrollment system would lead to a fully professional military.
Finally, the draft system is not fair because some conscripts have tried various means to dodge military service.
"It's not fair that only those whose parents are wealthy or have political connections are able to evade doing military service," Chung said.
While Chung's arguments won the backing of the KMT and PFP lawmakers, they were met with lukewarm responses from the DPP. "If you don't want to do your military service, who will?" said DPP lawmaker Lee Wen-chung (
Group members then engaged in arguments with Lee and another DPP lawmaker, Chen Chung-hsin (
At the TSU legislative caucus, Chung proposed that the pan-blue and pan-green camps hold debates to discuss the pros and cons of the two systems.
TSU caucus leader Chen Chien-ming (
"Actually, we proposed a draft bill in May, 2002, but the pan-blue alliance opposed it, claiming that such a plan would endanger national security," he said.
Chen said that the DPP approved of creating a professional military but the ultimate goal has to be achieved stage by stage.
"Under the DPP's plan, the length of the military service could be reduced to 14 months if 50,000 soldiers were recruited via the voluntary enrollment system, and then to six months if 100,000 were recruited and then further down to three months if 150,000 were recruited," he said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS