Amid tension with China, Taiwan extends military service period

Growing concerns over China’s increasingly aggressive military maneuvers have prompted Taiwan to extend the period of mandatory military service most of its youth must complete.

President Tsai Ing-wen recently announced that the mandatory service period for men born in or after 2005 will be extended from four months to one year, saying that the current system “no longer suits the needs” of the island’s defense.

The military says the rethink follows comparisons with military personnel in other democratic jurisdictions that have longer recruitment periods – such as South Korea (18 to 21 months), Singapore (24 months) and Israel (24 to 30 months).

Strengthening the island’s military has become a key concern for Tsai, who spoke of the need to underscore Taiwan’s determination to defend itself amid increasingly aggressive noises from Beijing.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party claims the autonomous democracy of 23.5 million people as part of its territory, despite never having controlled it, and has sent a record number of air and sea patrols to harass it since the former president’s visit. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly refused to rule out using force to “reunify” the island with mainland China.

“Nobody wants war,” Tsai said when announcing the extension of mandatory service periods in December.

“This is true for the government and people of Taiwan and the global community, but peace does not come from heaven and Taiwan is at the forefront of expanding authoritarianism.”

Former recruits interviewed by CNN say Taipei will need to do much more than that to make the training effective.

Outdated, boring and impractical. That was the verdict of six young people who spoke to the CNN about his recent experiences of mandatory service in the Taiwanese military.

They describe a process that was designed decades ago with a heavy emphasis on bayonet training but no instruction in urban warfare strategies or modern weapons like drones.

Some say that there were too few rifles to use, or that the weapons they trained with were too old to be used.

Others say that they “specialized” in cannons, grenades and mortars, but never received ammunition for training.

His criticism comes at a crucial time for Taiwan’s military.

“I only fired 40 times”

Former recruits are skeptical, telling CNN that the problems with conscription go beyond the short term and will only be corrected by a more complete overhaul.

Tsai herself acknowledged that many citizens feel that serving in the armed forces is “just a waste of time”.

“In our company, we had over 100 assault rifles, but only a little over a dozen could be used for target practice,” said Frank Liu, a 26-year-old auditor from Changhua Central County who served in 2021.

He said about 140 recruits have received training at his company.

“Many of these assault rifles were manufactured many decades ago and many were too worn out to be used in training. The guns had to be rotated between us.”

Paul Lee, a Taipei plant manager who served in 2018, had a similar experience.

“We didn’t fire a lot of shots during military training,” Lee said.

“I was practicing with the T65 Assault Rifle and only fired about 40 times during the entire training period.

“I am concerned that many people who have gone through training with me will not be able to confidently operate a rifle.”

Under current rules, the four-month tour of duty is normally split into two parts: five weeks of basic training and 11 weeks of ground training on a military base.

During the ground training period, conscripts are often given specialties – but even then some say they receive only the most superficial insights.

Dennis, a 25-year-old engineer from Taichung City who served last year, said that although he was assigned to specialize in cannons, he never learned how to fire them because trainers feared recruits might get hurt.

He only asked to be identified by his first name because he remains a reservist.

“We were given simple tasks and spent most of our time helping clean and wash the gun carts,” he said.

“If war breaks out today and I’m told to work as a gunner, I think I’ll become cannon fodder.”

Adam Yu, a 27-year-old designer from the northern city of Keelung who served in 2018 and specializes in mortars and grenade launchers, said that while he learned how to prepare the weapons, he never received ammunition or practiced firing them.

“I’m not sure if I can operate these weapons,” Yu said, adding, “I still don’t know how these weapons are supposed to be used on the battlefield.”

This sentiment was echoed by another former conscript surnamed Liu.

The 28-year-old salesman specialized in data processing with the air force and received training in Pingtung county in the south in 2015.

He also asked that his first name be withheld, saying he could still be called up for further reservist training.

“Our commanders hardly taught us anything during our ground training, because they thought we would only be here for a few months and it wouldn’t make much difference to them,” he said.

Taiwan has a professional volunteer military force, which last year numbered 162,000 full-time troops, according to a report by the Legislative Yuan.

In addition, approximately 70,000 men complete a period of mandatory military service each year.

Recruits must undergo a period of physical training and are taught how to shoot rifles and use bayonets.

Several of those who spoke to the CNN questioned the amount of time spent on bayonet training, arguing that it was outdated, although some military personnel continue to teach it in recruit training programs.

“I think bayonet training was just a waste of time because I really couldn’t think of how we could put this into practice,” said Frank Liu.

“Just look at the Russia-Ukraine war, there are so many types of weapons used. When does a soldier need to resort to a bayonet to attack his enemy? I think that was really out of date.”

Keelung’s Yu said his commanders placed great emphasis on bayonet training because it was part of the final exam.

“When we were practicing bayonets, we were required to follow the squad leader’s instructions with a specific chant for each move, and we had to repeat it on the exam.”

Lesson learned?

Some of these criticisms were acknowledged, tacitly or not, when Tsai announced the extension of the recruitment period and at the subsequent Defense Ministry press conference in early January.

The ministry said that when the new policy starts in 2024, all recruits will fire at least 800 rounds during their service and be trained in new weapons such as anti-tank missiles and drones.

Bayonet training will be modified to include other forms of hand-to-hand combat training, he added, and conscripts can also participate in joint military exercises with professional soldiers. Meanwhile, core training will increase from five to eight weeks.

Su Tzu-yun, director of Taiwan’s government-funded Institute of National Defense and Security Research, said he was confident the overhaul would boost the island’s combat capabilities.

He also thinks bayonet training in the curriculum is worth keeping. “It helps to increase a soldier’s courage and aggressiveness,” he said.

“If soldiers become involved in a mission that is not suitable for firing weapons, they can also use the bayonet as an alternative option.”

Su added that while modern weapons are included in the new training curriculum, it would be impractical for all soldiers to practice shooting because it would be too expensive.

“In the US, Javelin training [mísseis antitanque] it is done through simulation, because each missile costs US$ 70,000 and it is not possible for all of them to fire,” he said. “Usually, the whole unit finishes the simulation, so the commander picks some soldiers to practice shooting.”

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement to CNN that he invited experts to various academic seminars on recruiting reform and that he took on board many of their suggestions for increasing training intensity.

doubts remain

Even so, not everyone is convinced.

“I don’t think just extending the service will lead to better national defense,” said Lin Ying-yu, an assistant professor at the Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies at Tamkang University. AND

he said the “most important issues” involved clarifying in detail the type of training new recruits would receive. And at this point, former recruits who spoke to CNN remain skeptical.”

When I saw that they wanted to add drones to the training, my question was, are we going to have one drone per person and multiple chances to practice flying?” Yu said.

“If they keep their old way of teaching, they’ll just tell us to follow their instructions and memorize its weight and flight distance, and we won’t be able to operate it.”

The recruits’ fear is that the new form of mandatory service will end up looking a lot like the old form, only longer.

“During my service, most of the time we were just asked to do tedious tasks like moving weapons to show our commanders, and we spent a lot of time waiting,” said Dennis, the engineer.

It remains to be seen whether recruits’ time will be more profitably spent when the new rules come in next year, but all sides agree the stakes are high.

“Active citizens are the foundation and foundation of our will to resist,” said Enoch Wu, founder of the civil defense think tank Forward Alliance and a member of the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan.

“If the public decides that our home isn’t worth fighting for – or that we don’t stand a chance – then you can have the most professional military and it will still be too late.”