The Ministry of the Interior today said it would tighten fitness exemptions for military service by raising the body mass index (BMI) upper limit, reclassifying flat-footed people for alternative service and limiting exemptions to those with serious organ diseases.
The ministry reported to the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee today on the compulsory military service and revised fitness standards.
The ministry said it is to revise conscription fitness standards after controversy over celebrities falsifying medical records to avoid compulsory service.
Photo: Taipei Times
The BMI upper threshold for exemption would be raised from 35 to 45, making it nearly impossible to avoid conscription by gaining weight, Department of Conscription Administration Director Shen Che-fang (沈哲芳) said.
Blood pressure would be a top priority, with exemptions only granted if measurements indicate heart or organ disease, Shen said, adding that future blood pressure checks would require hospitalization for proper evaluation.
Asked how the ministry would handle those found to have illegally avoided conscription, Shen said that those under 36 would be required to complete their service.
Officials are still discussing requiring those 37 or older to make up their service, as some legislators have suggested, he said.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Shen said that new fitness standards are largely finalized.
Anyone with a BMI from 15 to 45 would be required to serve, although the ministry still needs to consult further with medical associations, he said.
In addition, while people with a foot arch under 168 degrees were previously exempt from service, as they are not suitable for active duty, they would now be conscripted for alternative service, he said.
All 193 regulations regarding fitness standards are being reviewed, he added.
Under current fitness standards, men of conscription age are assigned to active duty, alternative service or are exempted based on their medical examination results.
Those with a BMI over 35 or under 15 may be exempted.
With the revised regulations raising the BMI threshold to over 45, for a height of 170cm, the previous weight exemption of more than 101.3kg would be increased to 130.05kg.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS