The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday reiterated its goal to build an all-volunteer military force by 2018 after Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) told lawmakers on Monday that conscription would end in 2018.
It is the ministry’s goal to cease drafting citizens into service by 2018, “a goal that has to be worked toward,” said Major General Fu Cheng-jung (傅政榮), director of the Human Resources Division of the ministry’s Resources Management Department.
However, Fu’s comment was more ambiguous than Feng’s, who also said that ending conscription by 2018 was “a decision that should not be changed.”
Photo: Tu Chu-min, Taipei Times
The ministry had previously been more flexible about the deadline for an all-volunteer force.
Fu said that the number of volunteer soldiers and officers has increased steadily in accordance with the ministry’s predictions.
However, he did not give a direct reply when asked whether the military would have to continue conscription should it fail to recruit the necessary number of volunteers.
“The nation’s military service system has not changed, and the draft system and the volunteer system have been developed in parallel,” he said.
The ministry in 2008 announced that it would build an all-volunteer force by 2014, but ended up having to push back its target date for ending conscription several times.
Men born after 1994 are now exempt from one-year compulsory military service, but will still be required to undergo four months of mandatory military training upon reaching conscription age.
In other defense-related news, amid concerns over Chinese military aircraft that have circled Taiwan’s air defense identification zone twice in two weeks, the ministry said the military will confront intruding Chinese military aircraft “fearlessly, without evasion or weakness.”
However, the military’s exact response would vary depending on whether the intruding aircraft appear hostile, Joint Operations Division Director Major General Chung Shu-ming (鍾樹明) said.
The military monitors China’s military maneuvers closely and was fully aware of the two training missions around Taiwan’s airspace, he said.
It opted to deal with the situation in a way that would not provoke conflict, Chung said.
In the event of a Chinese military fleet with reconnaissance capabilities circling Taiwan, the military would impose a strict control over high-tech weapons and other signal-emitting sources to prevent China from accessing sensitive data, Chung said.
As an example of that flexibility, ministry spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said that a live-fire exercise of the Sky Bow II surface-to-air missile system in October at a base in Pingtung County was canceled after a Chinese reconnaissance ship was discovered off the southern coast.
In addition, the military has a humanitarian contingency plan to rescue the crew of Chinese military vessels should an accident occur, the ministry said.
Search and rescue missions would be deployed if Chinese vessels were involved in an accident in areas to the east of the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, Chung said.
China would be in charge of the search and rescue effort if such an accident occurred to the west of the middle line, he said.
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
RSS