The Ministry of National Defense should extend military service from four months to at least one year, defense experts said yesterday.
The four months of military service in Taiwan are divided into five weeks of basic training and 11 weeks of specialized training at a military branch training center, which is usually near where recruits live.
The four months are only one-fifth as long as the mandatory service required of South Koreans, and yet Taiwan is faced with a greater danger than South Korea, retired air force lieutenant general Chang Yen-ting (張延廷) said.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
The Afghan army — despite being trained by the US military, and supplied with US arms and equipment — lacked the morale and will to fight, Chang said, citing the collapse of the US-backed government in Afghanistan.
“Building up mental preparedness is more important than national defense,” Chang added.
If the government wants to back up its claim that Taiwan would fight to the last soldier, it needs people willing to take up arms, and that requires a combination of conscription and voluntary service, he said.
Given the threat that China poses to Taiwan, the ministry would be derelict in its duties not to extend military service, Chang said, adding that Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) must recommend to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that mandatory military service be extended to two years.
National Chengchi University international affairs professor Chen Wen-chia (陳文甲) also urged the military to extend mandatory service to at least one year so that volunteer personnel are free to focus on combat training.
The four months of training teach nothing of substance, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) said, adding that the gaps between refresher training are too long and people forget almost everything.
Policy calls for one week of basic training before reservists are sent to battle, but with modern warfare tactics, they are unlikely to fare well in a war with one week, he said.
The military needs personnel and weapons if it is to live up to the government’s expectation to “fight to the last soldier,” he added.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟), a member of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, said that extending mandatory service or bringing back a conscription system is difficult in a democratic society.
Reservists in Israel and Singapore know where and who to report to in a time of war, and it would be more practical for Taiwan to set up its reservists like that, Chao said.
In other news, Deputy Chief of Staff Logistics Major General Hsu Chin-teng (許金騰) yesterday said that the ministry has agreed on funding for logistics, maintenance, fuel and munitions subsidies, and has forwarded a request to the Executive Yuan.
If approved, the subsidies would be distributed on Nov. 1, he said.
Chao said he has since October last year asked the ministry repeatedly how it would fund the maintenance costs resulting from a rise in Chinese incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.
“Money is not the problem. It’s a matter of resolve,” Chao said, adding that the president has also expressed the hope that the funds could be distributed within a year.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS