Taiwan's First One-Year Conscripts Finish Basic Training
Taiwan’s first wave of one-year conscripts are taking their final basic training test to see if they are ready to defend the country in the event of a conflict.
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00:00 Crawling through rough terrain, providing first aid, and moving as a team under enemy
00:07 fire.
00:08 These are just some of the skills Taiwan's first batch of one-year conscripts must master
00:13 to graduate from basic training into the rest of the military.
00:16 "The most difficult part is probably the bar.
00:19 I had never received any training before, but after the leader's guidance and guidance,
00:25 my last training was in the bar."
00:28 The training program is part of efforts to boost the country's combat readiness, as Taiwan
00:32 faces a growing threat from China which seeks to take over the country.
00:37 In response, Taiwan extended mandatory military service from four months to a year in 2022,
00:43 and reformed parts of its training and defense strategy.
00:47 This included extending basic training from five weeks to eight weeks, and unit training
00:52 with other parts of the military from eight weeks to 44 weeks.
00:57 Recruits also now fire 800 live rounds, up from about 200 bullets previously.
01:03 And a boost to monthly pay means conscripts now earn US$830, up from 200.
01:10 But the military says that the biggest change, aside from a longer training period, is a
01:15 focus on more realistic combat training and working more closely as a team.
01:20 These recruits started training eight weeks ago, and officials here are proud of the results
01:24 and the skills these conscripts have learned.
01:26 "I believe that the media can feel that from the first day of the training until today,
01:31 the final test, they have grown a lot, both physically and mentally.
01:37 I hope that after they leave the army, they will have a good development and can successfully
01:43 retire."
01:44 The military is on track to train over 9,000 conscripts this year.
01:48 But these young men won't be on the front lines in a potential conflict.
01:52 They'll play military support roles.
01:55 Analysts say the extended service program is not a solution to Taiwan's low recruitment
01:59 problem.
02:00 "Even though the number of conscripts is going up, and therefore that drives the overall
02:04 number of people that Taiwan has in its military, they're not a replacement for regular forces.
02:09 Regular forces get more intensive training, they get more persistent training."
02:13 With more people in the military, analysts now say that Taiwan faces the problem of organizing
02:17 different troops together.
02:19 The extended conscription period is intended to help with conducting more complex training
02:24 like joint operations.
02:25 "The integration between conscripted forces with the regular forces is absolutely essential.
02:30 The last thing you want is to have a bunch of reservists or conscripted forces who don't
02:35 know where they should be.
02:36 And so the fact that they're training for a joint exercise I think is quite helpful."
02:42 Officials in Taiwan say they value both quality and quantity in the conscript training program.
02:48 The military expects many recruits here will pass the final exam with flying colors, in
02:53 hopes they can leave training with the skills needed to defend the country.
02:58 Chris Ma and Jaime O'Connor in Taichung for Taiwan Plus.
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