President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is seeking to finalize a plan to extend conscription at meetings with senior officials next week, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said on Wednesday.
The statement came after Tsai wrote on social media that she would next week begin holding meetings on the economy and national security.
Chang said the plan would also seek to bolster military training and boost Taiwan’s defensive capabilities.
Photo: CNA
Conscripts play a supporting role in the military, with 160,000 of the about 215,000 troops being volunteers.
As of last year, women, who are exempted from the draft, but can serve voluntarily, made up 15 percent of Taiwan’s military personnel.
The government is reportedly planning to extend conscription for men aged 18 or older to one year from four months, as the nation faces growing threats from China.
China’s military harassment of Taiwan has intensified over the past few years, and Beijing has sent military planes and ships toward the nation on a near-daily basis.
Beijing yesterday sent 39 planes, including a reconnaissance drone, and three ships near Taiwan in a 24-hour display of force, the Ministry of National Defense said, adding that 29 of the aircraft entered the nation’s air defense identification zone.
From 6am on Wednesday to 6am yesterday, 30 planes crossed the median of the Taiwan Strait, it said.
The planes flew to the nation’s southwest and then horizontally to the southeastern coast before turning back, flight patterns provided by the government showed.
Among them were 21 J-16 fighter jets, four H-6 bombers, four Xian H-6 bombers, one Z-9 anti-submarine warfare helicopter, one Y-20 aerial refueling aircraft and two KJ-500 early-warning aircraft, the government said, identifying the drone as a CASC Rainbow CH-4.
The government said it monitored the Chinese moves through its land-based missile systems.
Taiwan also dispatched combat air patrol aircraft and navy vessels in response to the incursions, it said.
China’s latest incursions came after Beijing in August held large military exercises encircling the nation after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan early that month. In its largest military exercises aimed at Taiwan in decades, China fired missiles over Taiwan proper, sparking a diplomatic protest from Tokyo, as some of the missiles fell into Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
In her social media post, Tsai also touched on the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) heavy defeats in the local government elections on Nov. 26.
Tsai stepped down as DPP chairperson after the party’s candidates won only five of the 22 mayoral and county commissioner elections last month.
Describing the outcomes of the elections as a “warning sign” to her administration, Tsai pledged to do more for those negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the rising cost of living and economic volatility.
Additional reporting by AP
CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT: A new committee would investigate a backlog of US weapons sales to Taiwan, said its chairman, US Representative Mike Gallagher The US should formally recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, and end its outdated and counterproductive “one China” policy, US Representative Tom Tiffany and 18 other US lawmakers wrote in a petition. “It is time to change the status quo and recognize the reality denied by the US government for decades: Taiwan is an independent nation,” Tiffany told the Epoch Times. “As our long-standing and valued partner, correctly acknowledging their independence from communist China is long overdue.” The resolution also asks the administration of US President Joe Biden to support Taiwan’s membership in international organizations and to negotiate a bilateral free-trade
The Pentagon is preparing for US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Taiwan later this year, Punchbowl News reported on Monday, citing an official directly involved in the talks. US administration officials anticipate McCarthy would visit Taiwan some time in the spring, the report said. McCarthy had previously pledged to visit Taiwan if he became House speaker. He was elected speaker earlier this month. He had also said that he would have liked to join then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s delegation when she visited Taiwan in August last year. Pelosi’s 19-hour visit to Taipei marked the first time in 25 years
Taiwan’s Chou Chieh-yu (周婕妤) was crowned the Kamui WPA Women’s World 9-Ball Champion after shutting out British pool titan Allison Fisher 9-0 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the organizers said on Sunday. Following the championship win at Harrah’s Resort and Casino Atlantic City, Chou pocketed US$30,000 and became the first female competitor to hold both the 9-ball and 10-ball world titles since Briton Kelly Fisher in 2012. Chou, 36, won the Predator World Women’s 10-Ball Championship in Austria in September last year after clinching a silver medal at last year’s World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, in July. “I’m very excited and it’s like
JOINT OPERATIONS: Participating in the IMET program, which offers professional training and education to military personnel, would boost Taiwan’s defense capabilities The US government is appropriating funding to help Taiwan participate in its International Military Education & Training (IMET) program to enhance interoperability and capabilities for joint operations of the Taiwanse and US militaries. The funding for Taiwan’s participation in the program is mentioned in the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2023, a US$1.7 trillion spending bill funding the US federal government for the fiscal year 2023. It covers funding for military support for Ukraine, defense spending and regions affected by natural disasters. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that IMET is an important US
RSS