Taipei, March 26 (CNA) The number of young Taiwanese conscripts set to perform a full year of compulsory military service in 2025 will increase by 41 percent from 2024, when the move to a full year of service was initiated, a senior military official said Wednesday.
Major General Cheng Chia-chi (成家麒), who heads the human resources division at the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Department of Resource and Planning, said the military is expected to enlist 9,839 conscripts in the full-year program, according to Ministry of Interior numbers.
That was 41 percent higher than the 6,956 who were enlisted in the program in 2024, and 2,047 of them had already completed their compulsory service as of Wednesday, Cheng said.
As in 2024, the new conscripts will undergo eight weeks of boot camp, but starting this year boot camp training will also include pistol, machine gun, and portable missile system Stinger firing and drone operations, according to Cheng.
After they are assigned to designated units, these conscripts will also be required to undergo 13 weeks of base training, Cheng said.
Taiwan’s military extended compulsory military service for men to one year from the previous four months starting in January 2024, with the aim of strengthening the country’s combat readiness in the face of threats from China.
Recruits born after Jan. 1, 2005 are now required to perform one year of military service, but new recruits can defer their service while attending college, something most young Taiwanese take advantage of.
That is why of the roughly 75,000 young men expected to be conscripted in 2025, the vast majority will still only have to perform four months of service because they were born before 2005 and just graduated from college.
The MND does not expect the number of conscripts in the 1-year program to surge until it recruits college graduates born in 2005 or after in 2027.
Of the nearly 7,000 who entered the full-year service program in 2024, 993 conscripts decided to join the armed forces as volunteer soldiers, while 322 suspended their service due to health issues and nine left on early discharge, Cheng said.
The MND did not provide reasons for their early discharge, however.
Since 1949, when the Republic of China government retreated to Taiwan, Taiwanese men have been required to serve two or three years in the military.
After 2000, conscription was gradually reduced to one year by 2008.
Under former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the then ruling Kuomintang (KMT), who was in office from 2008 to 2016, the government turned the nation’s military into a mainly volunteer force.
At the same time, compulsory military service was reduced to four months, starting in 2013, a policy that remained until 2024.
During the four months, conscripts undergo five weeks of boot camp followed by 11 weeks of specialized training with field units.
Currently, Taiwan’s military is mainly a volunteer force of around 215,000 people, with conscripts serving in a supporting role. As of June 2024, there were 152,885 active-duty voluntary military personnel in Taiwan’s armed forces.
