Name: Taiwan extends mandatory military service to one year - BBC News
Uploaded: 2023-01-02T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 4 min 31 s
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Taiwan's President Tsai, Ying-wen has announced that all men will be required to serve one year's military service.

The announcement came after China carried out one of its biggest incursions to date in the seas and skies around Taiwan on Sunday, with fighter jets and warships deployed around the island.

Basic passive voice

The Taiwanese leader said it was needed to counter the growing military pressure Beijing is exerting on Taiwan, which it regards as an integral part of China.

The current four-month military training service system cannot provide sufficient troops or frequency of training

to cope with the rapidly changing combat situation and satisfy the need for combat readiness.

After two years of complete assessment and review considering the demand for troops in the new strategic structure,

we have decided to restore the one-year compulsory military service from 2024, applicable to male draftees born after January the 1st, 2005.

For more on this, we're joined now by Ben Blanchard, who is Taiwan Bureau Chief for Reuters; he joins us from Oxford, here in the UK.

Give us the reaction, first of all, to news of this extended military service.

Well, it's been something that the President has been discussing with her top security officials for quite a while now, so it wasn't exactly a surprise.

We knew that it was gonna come before the end of the year.

This is something that really has bipartisan support in Taiwan.

Both the ruling party and the main opposition party have⏤

do understand the need to stress Taiwan's defenses, especially in the face of China's stepped-up military activities and what Taiwan calls a, you know, real⏤

a clear and present danger that⏤threat from China to the democracy that is Taiwan.

So, bipartisan support; does it have widespread public support as well?

Military conscription (in) Taiwan is something that has happened ever since 1949, since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan.

So, this is something that the vast majority of Taiwanese men have grown up with; it's not a new system.

And the point I would make that, in going back to one year, this⏤different from South Korea, for example.

So, South Korea obviously faces its own hostile neighbor in the form of North Korea, and South Korea, though, it's an 18-month conscription system.

So, going from four months back to one year⏤it's not as severe as South Korea.

And, as I say, this is something that the, you know, the threat from China is something that everybody is very, very well aware of in Taiwan.

And there is definitely a wide social consensus that Taiwan does need to strengthen its defenses.

And, of course, we saw China's presence very much on Monday, didn't we?

President Tsai was talking about Taiwan being on the front line of authoritarian expansion.

So, Taiwan is really feeling that pressure, isn't it?

Yeah, so, certainly, for the last two years or so, China has been carrying out almost daily incursions into Taiwan's ad⏤

ADIZ, as they call it⏤the air defense identification zone around Taiwan.

So, obviously, this really stepped up in early August when china carried out war games near Taiwan.

So, this was just after the then-US house speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.

So, that was... that was very, very traumatic.

That was, you know, they were firing missiles over Taipei; there were warships that came very, very close to the Taiwanese coast.

So, since then, the military activities have continued, so, Taiwan is well accustomed to this.

But, certainly, Taiwan's military has strained, especially the air force, which has to scramble almost on a daily basis to go and see often and warn away these Chinese warplanes.

So, it's something that you... I mean, on the ground in Taiwan, there's no sense of panic.

You know, you have to remember, Taiwan has lived with the threat of Chinese invasion ever since 1949.

And, of course, China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

And this is something that President Xi, Jin-ping when he talks about Taiwan, you know⏤

Ok, Ben, thank you very much for your analysis.

Ben Blanchard, Taiwan Bureau Chief for Reuters.