Women soldiers, conscription: How Taiwan military is making big changes with an eye on China

Taiwan is making even more changes to its military with an eye on China. Taipei has announced that women will be allowed into its reservist training for the first time. The news comes just weeks after Taiwan announced that come 2024, it will expand compulsory military service from four months to one year. Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949 during a civil war, is claimed by China. The decades-old threat of invasion by China has sharpened since Beijing cut off communications with Taiwan’s government after the 2016 election of Tsai, who is seen as pro-independence. Beijing has responded to Taiwan’s decision by claiming that Taipei is using its people as “cannon fodder”. Let’s take a closer look at how Taiwan is changing its military: Women in reservist training Taipei’s defence ministry said it would allow around 200 discharged female soldiers to enrol in voluntary reservist trainings from the second quarter of this year, as part of efforts to boost the overall backup force. CNN quoted Taiwan’s defence ministry as saying that all conscripts would be enrolled in eight weeks of basic training ahead of 44 weeks of ground training.

Their monthly salaries would further be raised to $650 per month from $195.

Of Taiwan’s 188,000-person military, 90 per cent are volunteers and 10 per cent are men doing their required four months of service. Tsai was quoted by Reuters as saying that conscripts would undergo more intense training, including shooting exercises, combat instruction used by US forces, and operating more powerful weapons including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank missiles. Taiwan has complained of delayed U.S. arms deliveries this year, including of Stingers, but Tsai said the situation was improving after discussions with the United States. “Maintaining peace is reliant on national defence, and national defence relies on every citizen,” Tsai was quoted as saying by CNN. “This is the first year to include women in the reservists training so this year will be a trial programme,” said Major General Yu Wen-cheng from the ministry’s All-Out Defence Mobilisation Agency. “We will plan the training capacities according to the number of applicants.” The voluntary programmes aim to “strengthen the effectiveness of the retraining of reserve troops in combat skills to help improve the combat capabilities of reservists,” he told reporters. Currently, only Taiwanese men are required to do mandatory military service and reservist training, although women can volunteer to serve in the armed forces. As per CNN, Taiwan’s defence ministry has cited it inability to accommodate both sexes as the reason for only training men as reservists. However, lawmakers have said such claims discriminate against women based on their gender. Conscription President Tsai Ing-wen in December said Taiwan will extend its compulsory military service from four months to a year starting in 2024. [caption id=“attachment_11704481” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen called the decision ‘incredibly difficult’. AP[/caption] Taiwan’s current four-month-long military conscription requirement was widely panned by the public as being too short and not providing the training that professional soldiers actually need. The government had slashed the period from a year to four months in 2017 as it was transitioning the army into an all-volunteer corps.

The longer military service applies to men born after 2005, and will start 1 January, 2024.

Those born before 2005 will continue to serve four months, but under a revamped training curriculum aimed at strengthening the island’s reserves forces. As per The Guardian, conscripts will be given the task of defending key infrastructure, which will allow regular forces time to respond in case Beijing decides to invade. In December, Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu told the newspaper that the Chinese threat was “getting more serious than ever.” “No one wants war,” Tsai said at the time. “This is true of Taiwan’s government and people, and the global community, but peace does not come from the sky, and Taiwan is at the front lines of the expansion of authoritarianism.” Tsai, describing the decision as ‘incredibly difficult”, said Taiwan wanted peace but needed to be able to defend itself. “As long as Taiwan is strong enough, it will be the home of democracy and freedom all over the world, and it will not become a battlefield,” Tsai said. The plan sets Taiwan up for increasing its defence capabilities but what remains to be seen is how well the Defence Ministry will carry out the reforms, said Arthur Zhin-Sheng Wang, a defence expert at Taiwan’s Central Police University. The new plan would put those serving out a year-long military service in a more defensive role of “homeland defence,” with frontline battle roles being reserved for those who choose to opt in, according to the outlined plan. The homeland defence role would be akin to the US National Guard, Wang said. A poll from the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation in December found that among Taiwanese adults, 73.2 per cent said they would support a one-year military service. That support was across party lines, the survey found, spanning the Democratic Progressive Party and the more China-friendly Nationalist Party. But among those closest to military service age, support has waned. Among the youngest age group, those 20—24, only 35.6 per cent said they would support an extension. When the Foundation asked the same question in March, 56.4 per cent of the group agreed it should be extended. Paul Huang, a research fellow at the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation, said the implementation period in 2024, when Taiwan will elect a new president, meant that Tsai was “passing the buck” to her successor.

“This is one of the basic steps that should have been done a long time ago,” he said.

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China responds CNA quoted China’s spokesperson Wang Wenbin as saying that “struggling for the great task of achieving national reunification is immeasurably significant, dying for Taiwan independence separatist activities is completely worthless”. “We believe Taiwan compatriots are highly principled, they will not be put up as cannon fodder by Taiwan independence separatist forces,” Wang added. China has ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan to assert its sovereignty claims, including almost daily Chinese air force missions near the island over the past three years. Taiwan in December witnessed the largest-ever Chinese air force incursion into the island’s air defence identification zone, with dozens Chinese planes crossing an unofficial buffer between the two sides. China also staged war games near Taiwan in August following a visit to Taipei by former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Taiwan’s government says only the island’s 23 million people can decide their future. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.