President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday inspected a military training base in Taichung that is being upgraded ahead of implementation next year of a new government policy extending compulsory service to one year.
During Tsai’s tour of the Cheng Kung Lin base, she told a group of trainees that her administration’s decision to extend the service period for conscripts from three months to one year was aimed at “safeguarding the nation’s security and ensuring that Taiwan’s democratic way of life will not be changed.”
As part of an effort to improve the nation’s combat readiness, the military is also updating its training programs, providing conscripts with new helmets and combat vests, and purchasing new mortars, cannons and machine guns, she said.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
While the compulsory military service period is to be extended from January, the starting pay of conscripts would also be increased, to NT$20,320 from NT$6,510 per month, to ensure they have enough to cover basic expenses, the president said.
The decision to lengthen the compulsory military service for male Taiwanese is aimed at bolstering the nation’s combat readiness against a potential attack by China, the government said in December last year when it announced the new policy.
The Ministry of National Defense estimated that there would be 9,127 new conscripts next year after the first batch born on or after Jan. 1, 2005, joins the one-year service on Jan. 25.
The conscription service is to comprise eight weeks of boot camp training then assignment to designated units in the army, navy, air force, the ministry’s Information, Communications and Electronic Force, the Military Police, the Political Warfare Bureau or the Medical Affairs Bureau based on their specialties, the ministry said.
Taiwan’s military is mainly a volunteer force of about 215,000, with conscripts serving in a supporting role.
As of 2021, there were 160,000 voluntary military personnel in the armed forces.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS