TAIPEI (Reuters) – The length of compulsory military service in Taiwan will be increased to one year from the current four months, a senior government official said, saying the plan would be formalized on Tuesday amid mounting military pressure from China.
President Tsai Ing-wen will hold a national security meeting later today to discuss ways to strengthen the democratic island’s civil defenses, her office said.
Citing government and ruling party sources briefed on the plan, Taiwan’s official news agency reported that Taipei’s new terms of military service would come into effect in 2024.
Taiwan on Monday denounced the Chinese army’s greatest intrusion into its airspace, while Beijing did not rule out using force to bring the island back into its fold, which it considers a renegade province.
Previous governments had reduced the length of compulsory military service, initially by more than two years, to accommodate young voters, at a time of easing in relations between Taiwan and China.
Tsai Ing-wen launched a vast program of modernization of the defenses of the island, in order to make this one more difficult to attack.
(Report Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; French version Jean Terzian)
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