Meet the Conscripts Under Taiwan's New 1-Year Mandatory Military Service

Taiwan has extended its mandatory military service. Rik Glauert meets the conscripts now spending a year learning how to fight for their country.

Transcript

00:00 Saying goodbye to his family, 18-year-old Junyi has been conscripted into military service.

00:05 He's among the first batch of young Taiwanese men who now have to put in a full year with

00:10 the military.

00:11 "I can join the army.

00:12 When the country is in trouble, when it needs us, we can stand up and say, 'I can defend

00:20 my own territory or I can protect my family.'"

00:23 Conscripts like Junyi will learn how to shoot, use a grenade, as well as battlefield first

00:27 aid.

00:28 The previous batches only trained for four months, but Taiwan is extending its military

00:32 service to one year to better prepare its reservists for a possible conflict.

00:37 Neighbouring China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has upped its threats to take the

00:42 island nation by force.

00:44 In response, Taiwan is using a so-called porcupine strategy to make China's much larger military

00:50 rethink the cost of an attack.

00:52 As well as lengthening conscription, it has boosted defence spending and is developing

00:56 a domestic weapons industry.

00:58 "There are many ways to increase and strengthen the defence of the island, but extending the

01:05 period for the military service is one.

01:10 So defence is kind of public good and it has to be assured by all the people of the nation,

01:20 especially for younger generation."

01:23 Like Junyi's, families across Taiwan will be impacted as conscripts need to spend more

01:28 time in service.

01:29 But most Taiwanese support the new defence measures.

01:32 "I think it's a good thing.

01:35 I think it's acceptable.

01:37 I think it's acceptable.

01:40 They are not rejecting it."

01:42 They're seeing it as a small price to pay to defend the nation's freedom.

01:46 China has denounced these new measures as worthless.

01:49 It says new recruits will be cannon fodder for what it calls Taiwan's separatist forces.

01:54 But among those going off to learn how to fight, there's a sense of duty to a country

01:58 facing an existential threat.

02:01 Justin Wu, Yuen Chun-Lai and Rick Lowat for Taiwan Plus.

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