The government is to assess whether the military conscription period needs to be lengthened to bolster Taiwan’s defense capabilities, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said yesterday.
Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) on Monday told lawmakers that the measure could be vital to the nation’s ability to deal with existential threats.
Ukraine’s resistance against Russian aggression has been an inspiration to Taiwanese and a reminder that the nation’s survival is predicated on the will to defend it, Lo told a news conference following the weekly Cabinet meeting in Taipei.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
The government’s focus is to augment the military reserve by creating mobilization plans and reservist training programs via the All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency, which was activated in January, he said.
However, the government acknowledges that there is a consensus among Taiwanese to extend military conscription and re-evaluate Taiwan’s military system, he said.
The support for conscription is evidence that Taiwanese are united in their resolve to defend the nation’s democracy, he said, adding that the government would proceed with this in mind.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of National Defense would examine the viability of proposals to extend military service, he said.
Separately yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee asked Deputy Minister of National Defense Bo Hong-hui (柏鴻輝) when his ministry could be expected to make a decision on lengthening conscription.
A decision to change the terms of military conscription must originate from the whole of government and the defense ministry is not prepared to discuss the issue of its own volition, Bo said.
The assessment should not take more than a year, he said.
Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Liao Wan-ju (廖婉汝) and DPP Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) told defense officials at the meeting that a civil defense pamphlet issued by the defense ministry is too brief and has unrealistic instructions.
Instruction to scan QR codes to get information about air raid shelters is questionable, as cell towers and Internet services are likely be targeted in a war, Liao said.
The defense ministry’s pamphlet contains virtually no practical advice for people to survive a war, whereas a Latvian civil defense booklet has 15 pages of useful material, Lin said.
The first edition of the defense ministry’s pamphlet was published to establish first principles, Bo said, adding that no specific instructions can be published before it discusses and tests ideas with local governments.
The annual Wan An air raid drill this year would provide one occasion for the government to gain a clearer picture about what civil defense strategies would be effective, he said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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