Taiwan prepares its citizens for war - WP

Taiwanese authorities want to create a professional reserve force to support 155 active soldiers.

Taiwan, threatened with military invasion by China, is trying to improve its defense capabilities. In particular, the country is modernizing the current training of reservists and trying to create a large professional army. The Washington Post writes about it on Sunday, August 4.

However, as the publication points out, Defense Minister Wellington Koo admitted that a lack of equipment and instructors has slowed efforts to professionalize reservist training.

"I have to say honestly that we need to ramp up training quickly," he said.

"All Taiwanese men born in 2005 or later are now required to sign up for a year of service, while about 2 million ex-soldiers must retrain every two years," WP points out.

But officials admitted that things were not going well and only 6% of eligible conscripts (6936 people) declared their desire to participate in military training.

"The recruits were expected to learn how to use drones, Kestrel anti-tank missiles and Stinger surface-to-air missiles. But the majority postponed military service to enter university first, which means that many men born in 2005 will not be educated until 2027," the journalists point out.

Taiwan's slow progress in ramping up military training has worried military experts in both Washington and Taipei, who are urging authorities to act more quickly to rein in Xi Jinping and prevent war.

WP notes that the largest army in the world, the Chinese army, has 2 million active servicemen and recruits about 400 conscripts annually. In addition, the country's defense budget of $000 billion is 230 times larger than Taiwan's in 13.