Following a media report that the military has set up a project office to discuss extending the mandatory four-month military service period to one year, the Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that no changes to military service have yet officially been decided.
The ministry said that it is gathering opinions from all sectors regarding whether to extend the four-month conscription period to one year in response to the increasing military threat posed by China.
The ministry has to take into consideration threats from enemies, the need for defensive operations, military training capacity and other complementary measures before making a decision, it said.
Photo: CNA
Chinese-language online news site Up Media (上報) on Monday reported that the ministry has established a dedicated team led by Major General Shen Wei-chih (沈威志) to study the issue of extending military service.
According to a preliminary plan, the extension is to be announced on Jan. 1 next year and would take effect a year later, Up Media reported.
If introduced, the new policy would apply to men who were born after 2006, it said.
Additional personal weapons for new recruits and equipment for quartermasters would need to be prepared before the policy could be implemented, the site cited people familiar with the issue as saying.
Laws regarding suspended drafts for university students and the reserve officer selection process would have to be amended during the year between the announcement of the policy and its implementation, it said.
As cases of disobedience in the military might increase if the mandatory service period is extended to a year, whether to reintroduce a system of military courts and confinement rooms should be discussed, it added.
The Code of Court Martial Procedure (軍事審判法) was amended in 2013, stipulating that outside of wartime, military personnel on active duty would be subject to prosecution and punishment under the regular Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法).
Another key question is whether there are enough military officers to train standing soldiers if the term is extended, it said, adding that Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) has complained that army commanders have not proposed viable solutions to the issue.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS