Taiwan Prepares Its Citizens for a Chinese Invasion - Media.

The Taiwanese authorities are preparing their citizens for a Chinese invasion. Currently, the country's situation is not very good, writes The Washington Post.

The threat from Beijing increased after Xi Jinping announced the inevitability of China's reunification with Taiwan. He emphasized his readiness to use force to achieve this goal by sending an increasing number of military aircraft and warships to test the island's defenses.

Taiwan, in turn, is trying to improve its defense capabilities. In particular, they continue mandatory military service and are modernizing current reservist training as part of a broader shift in defense strategy. This is being done to make Xi Jinping think twice before risking and using force.

However, young Taiwanese are not responding to the call. Recently, Defense Minister Wellington Koo also admitted that equipment and instructor shortages have slowed efforts to professionalize reservist training.

"I must honestly say that we need to quickly strengthen (training - Ed.), as there is still much to improve," he said in June.

Taiwan's Defense Improvement Plans

As reported, Taiwan wants to create professional reserve forces to support 155,000 active soldiers. All Taiwanese men born in 2005 or later are now required to enlist for a year of service, whereas about 2 million former soldiers must undergo retraining every two years.

But officials admitted that they are behind schedule with plans to train reservists and conscripts on how to supplement front-line troops in the event of war. Only 6% of eligible conscripts (6,936 people) participated in the newly implemented 12-month program this year. Most have postponed military service to enroll in university first, meaning many men born in 2005 will not be trained until 2027.

Those who are performing military service this year are not receiving the expected training. It was assumed that a selected group of conscripts would learn to use drones, Kestrel anti-tank missiles, and Stinger surface-to-air missiles, but there were not enough trainees to start the training this year.

Taiwan's Lagging Defense Capabilities

Taiwan's slow progress in strengthening troop training concerns military experts in both Washington and Taipei, who are urging the authorities to act faster to deter Xi Jinping and prevent war.

WP also notes that the world's largest army - the Chinese army, has 2 million active military personnel and recruits about 400,000 conscripts annually. Furthermore, the country's defense budget of $230 billion is 13 times larger than Taiwan's 2023 budget.

Source: RBC-Ukraine