TAIPEI: Taiwan on Tuesday announced an extension in mandatory military service from four months to one year, citing the threat from an increasingly hostile China.
Beijing considers self-ruled, democratic Taiwan a part of its territory, to be taken one day, by force if necessary, and the island lives under the constant fear of a Chinese invasion.
China’s sabre-rattling has intensified in recent years under President Xi Jinping, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has further deepened worries in Taiwan that Beijing might move similarly to annex the island.
China’s “intimidation and threats against Taiwan are getting more obvious,” President Tsai Ing-wen told a press conference after a high-level government meeting on national security.
“No one wants war... but my fellow countrymen, peace will not fall from the sky.”
“The current four-month military service is not enough to meet the fast and ever-changing situation,” she said. “We have decided to restore the one-year military service from 2024.”
The extended requirement will apply to men born after January 1, 2005, Tsai added.
Mandatory service used to be deeply unpopular in Taiwan, and its previous government had reduced it from one year to four months with the aim of creating a mainly volunteer force.
But recent polling showed more than three-quarters of the Taiwanese public now believes that is too short.
Tsai described the extension as “an extremely difficult decision... to ensure the democratic way of life for our future generations.”
“We can only avoid a war by preparing for a war and we can only stop a war by being capable of fighting a war.”
The prospect of a Chinese invasion has increasingly worried Western nations and many of China’s neighbors.
Xi, China’s most authoritarian leader in decades, has made clear that what he calls the “reunification” of Taiwan cannot be passed on to future generations.
Taiwan and China split at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, and Tsai has said becoming a part of China is not acceptable to the people of the island.
Taiwan is a mountainous island and would present a formidable challenge to an invading force, but it is massively outgunned with 89,000 ground forces compared with China’s one million, according to a Pentagon estimate released last month.
Beijing also has a huge advantage in military equipment.
Taiwan has stepped up reservist training and increased its purchases of warplanes and anti-ship missiles to bolster its defenses. But experts have said that is not enough.
The island needs to go further than just extending mandatory service, said J. Michael Cole, a TaipeXi-based analyst.
“Given the threat level and the example of Russia in Ukraine, I hope the Taiwanese public realizes that such measures are needed,” he told AFP.
“The threat that Taiwan faces is just as existential.”
The military service announcement on Tuesday came two days after Chinese military exercises near Taiwan, which were held in response to what Beijing described as “provocations” and “collusion” between Washington and Taipei.
Taiwan extends mandatory military service over China threat
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Taiwan extends mandatory military service over China threat
- Taipei, which rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, on Monday reported the larges-ever Chinese air force incursion into the island's air defence identification zone, with 43 Chinese planes crossing an unofficial buffer between the two sides
China confronts Japanese politicians in disputed East China Sea area
BEIJING/TOKYO: China’s coast guard confronted Japanese lawmakers in waters claimed by both countries in the East China Sea, China’s embassy in Tokyo and Japanese media said on Sunday, the latest in a series of maritime disputes involving China and its neighbors.
Chinese vessels took unspecified law enforcement measures, the embassy said in a statement, adding that it had lodged solemn representations for what it called “infringement and provocation” by Japan near tiny, uninhabited islands that Beijing calls the Diaoyu and Tokyo calls the Senkaku.
The Japanese group, including former Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, was on an inspection mission organized by the city of Ishigaki in Okinawa prefecture, according to the Chinese Embassy and Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
Japan and China have repeatedly faced off around the Japan-administered islands. China also has escalating run-ins with the Philippine navy in disputed areas of the South China Sea, where Beijing’s expansive maritime claims conflict with those of a number of Southeast Asia nations.
Inada’s group spent three hours near the islands on Saturday, using drones to observe the area, and the Japanese coast guard vessel sought to fend off the Chinese coast guard, NHK said.
“The government and the public are aware of the severe security situation,” said Inada, a senior official of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, according to NHK. “The Senkaku are our sovereign territory and we need to go ashore for research.”
It was the first such inspection trip to the area involving a member of Japan’s parliament since 2013, NHK reported.
Officials of Japan’s foreign ministry were not immediately available for comment outside of working hours.
China strongly urged Japan to abide by what it called a consensus reached between the two countries, stop political provocations, on-site incidents and hyping up public opinion, the embassy said.
It asked Japan to “return to the right track of properly managing contradictions and differences through dialogue and consultation, so as to avoid further escalation of the situation.”
World Central Kitchen to resume Gaza aid after staff deaths in Israeli strike
NICOSIA: World Central Kitchen or WCK said it would resume operations in the Gaza Strip on Monday, a month after seven workers of the US-based charity were killed in an Israeli air strike. Prior to halting operations, WCK had distributed more than 43 million meals in Gaza since October, representing by its own accounts 62 percent of all international NGO aid.
The charity said it had 276 trucks with the equivalent of almost 8 million meals ready to enter through the Rafah Crossing and will also send trucks into Gaza from Jordan.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire,” said the charity’s chief executive officer Erin Gore.
“We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding as many people as possible.”
The April 1 deaths triggered widespread condemnation and demands from Israel’s allies, including the US, for an explanation.
Israel said its inquiries had found serious errors and breaches of procedure by its military, dismissing two senior officers and reprimanding senior commanders.
WCK is demanding an independent investigation. Israel’s six-month war against Hamas in Gaza followed an Oct. 7 attack by the militant group in southern Israel when more than 250 hostages were seized and some 1,200 people killed, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 34,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say, and caused a humanitarian disaster for the enclave’s more than 2 million inhabitants.
“We have been forced to make a decision: Stop feeding altogether during one of the worst hunger crises ever ... Or keep feeding knowing that aid, aid workers and civilians are being intimidated and killed,” Gore said.
“These are the hardest conversations, and we have considered all perspectives when deliberating. Ultimately, we decided we must keep feeding, continuing our mission of showing up to provide food to people during the toughest of times.” (Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
White House urges ‘peaceful’ campus protests after hundreds arrested
WASHINGTON: The White House insisted on Sunday that pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked US universities in recent weeks must remain peaceful, after police arrested around 275 people on four separate campuses over the weekend.
“We certainly respect the right of peaceful protests,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told ABC’s “This Week.”
But, he added: “We condemn the anti-Semitism language that we’ve heard of late and certainly condemn all the hate speech and the threats of violence out there.”
The demonstrations began at Columbia University in New York, but they have since spread rapidly across the country.
While peace has prevailed on many campuses, the number of protesters detained — at times by police in riot gear using chemical irritants and tasers — is rising fast.
They include 100 at Northeastern University in Boston, 80 at Washington University in St. Louis, 72 at Arizona State University, and 23 at Indiana University.
Among those arrested at Washington University was Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who faulted police for aggressive tactics she said provoked the sort of trouble they are meant to quell.
“This is about freedom of speech ... on a very critical issue,” she told CNN shortly before her arrest on Saturday.
“And there they are, sending in the police and creating a riot.”
College administrators have struggled to find the best response, caught between the need to respect free-speech rights and the imperative of containing inflammatory and sometimes violently anti-Semitic calls by protesters.
At the University o Southern California, school officials late on Saturday closed the main campus to the public after pro-Palestinian groups again set up an encampment that had been cleared earlier, the school announced on X.
With final exams coming in the next few weeks, some campuses — including the Humboldt campus of California State Polytechnic University, have closed and instructed students to complete their classes online.
The activists behind the campus protests — not all of them students — are calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas and want colleges to sever ties with Israel.
Ukraine warns front ‘worsened’ as Russia claims fresh gains
- Russia’s troops are advancing in the eastern Donetsk region
- The US finally approved a $61 billion package of financial aid
VOZDVYZHENKA, Ukraine, April 28, 2024 Agence France Presse: Ukraine’s army leader admitted Sunday that Kyiv’s position on the battlefield has worsened after Russian forces captured another village in the east, pressing their advantage in manpower and ammunition.
Russia’s troops are advancing in the eastern Donetsk region as Kyiv awaits the arrival of much-needed US weapons that it hopes will stabilize the fragile front lines.
“The situation at the front has worsened,” Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said in a Facebook post Sunday.
Ukrainian troops had “retreated” westwards to new defensive lines in a section of the front that runs past the city of Donetsk, controlled by pro-Russian forces since 2014.
Russia has “a significant advantage in forces and means” and had been able to notch up advances amid “heavy fighting,” Syrsky said.
“In some sectors the enemy had tactical success, and in some areas our troops managed to improve the tactical position,” he added.
Russia’s defense ministry earlier on Sunday claimed its troops had captured the village of Novobakhmutivka in the Donetsk region — around 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Avdiivka, which they seized in February.
The stark assessment of the picture facing Ukrainian troops comes at the end of week of ups and downs for Kyiv.
The United States finally approved a $61 billion package of financial aid after months of political wrangling, unlocking much-needed arms for Ukraine’s stretched troops.
But on the battlefield Russia chalked up more successes.
Its troops managed to make rapid advances in a narrow column to the northwest of Avdiivka.
In the village of Vozdvyzhenka, some eight kilometers from the fighting in Ocheretyne, AFP reporters saw civilians loading a small truck with furniture and belongings on Sunday.
“We’re going a long way from here... I don’t have time to talk because of the shelling,” one of them told AFP, before climbing into the vehicle and speeding out of the village.
Soldiers on the side of a road in the woods said they had originally been sent to build defensive lines.
“But the situation has changed. We were told not to take the shovels but to stay and wait for orders. The Russians are attacking and advancing,” one told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Syrsky confirmed on Sunday that Russia had made some “tactical” progress in that part of the front, but said Moscow had not yet achieved what he called an “operational advantage.”
He also said additional units were being deployed to replace those that had sustained heavy losses.
The recent setbacks have prompted rare criticism from Ukraine’s military bloggers.
“The (Russian) breakthrough near Ocheretyne revealed a number of problems,” the Deep State Telegram channel, with close links to the Ukrainian army, said in a post on Wednesday.
It said leaders of the 115th mechanized brigade, which is fighting in the area, were “responsible for the collapse of the defense in the entire sector, allowing significant losses.”
Kyiv’s forces are outnumbered across the battlefield, with the country struggling to recruit enough soldiers to replace those who have been killed, wounded or exhausted by the war, now in its third year.
Leaders in Kyiv have warned the military outlook could worsen in the next few weeks, while shipments of US weapons are making their way to the front lines.
“We are still waiting for the supplies promised to Ukraine,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky in his evening address Sunday.
Speaking after talks with Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the Democrats in the US House of Representatives, he said he had once again stressed the urgent need for Patriot anti-missile systems “as soon as possible.”
Ukraine’s head of intelligence at the ministry of defense Kyrylo Budanov said this month that the battlefield situation would likely be at its most difficult in mid-May to early June.
Philippines swelters in scorching heat as mercury hits record high in Manila
- Children will attend remote classes on Monday, Tuesday in flashback to COVID times
- Temperature in capital’s Metro region could surpass 40 degrees next month, forecasters say
MANILA: The Philippines is bracing for more blistering weather as temperatures in the capital region rose to a record high over the weekend.
Unusually hot temperatures have been recorded across South and Southeast Asia in recent days, forcing schools to close and authorities to issue health warnings.
In Metro Manila on Saturday, the mercury hit 38.8 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous record set in 1915.
Elsewhere in the country, the weather has been even hotter, with Tarlac province seeing the mercury hit 40.3 degrees earlier in the year.
The hottest ever temperature recorded in the Philippines was 42.2 degrees in 1912.
Glaiza Escullar of state weather agency PAGASA told Arab News it was likely that some parts of the country would continue to see temperatures of 40 degrees and above until the second week of May.
March, April and May are typically the hottest and driest months of the year, but conditions this year have been exacerbated by the El Nino weather phenomenon.
The heat index, which also takes into account humidity, reached 45 degrees on Saturday, which the weather agency classifies as “danger.” It said it could hit 46 degrees on Monday.
“We are issuing a heat index warning just to emphasize that apart from the hot weather or high temperature, relative humidity has a factor in terms of health,” Escullar said.
“If (a person) is dehydrated or he is not in a good condition, the body tends to overheat because the sweating process is slowed down by the high relative humidity.”
In response to the searing heat and a nationwide transport strike, the Department of Education announced on Sunday that all public schools would be closed on Monday and Tuesday but that classes would be held remotely.
Jeepney drivers are staging a three-day strike in protest at the government’s plan to phase out the iconic vehicles.
Many schools in the Philippines do not have air conditioning and several were forced to close earlier this month and hold remote classes in a reminder of the COVID-19 pandemic.
High school student Ivan Garcia told Arab News the soaring heat was affecting his studies.
“The weather is annoyingly hot … I cannot focus on doing my school work,” he said.
Ninth-grader Adrian Reyes said he preferred to work from home.
“I usually leave the house around noontime and it’s really a challenge especially for me and others like me who have to commute to get to school,” he said.
“I prefer the asynchronous mode of learning because we have aircon at home.”
