What, military recruitment? Easy, do what France does and have a Taiwanese Foreign Legion.
What? Taiwan’s afraid of SEA men having any legal status in the county at all? Oh, well I guess we should just give up on immigration all together then
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The whole article is appallingly worded.
Maybe the video is better
I think an easier and better solution will be to switch to a professional army rather than rely on conscription.
the current 4 month long service is too short to be meaningful.
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I feel like for the military question, Taiwan could just add some training videos to their “life education” classes and arrange for everyone in Taiwan to get a rifle in the event of attack. I think they probably need professionals for air and water but everything else could be done on a volunteer basis.
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you can also learn swimming on youtube, but i wouldnt recommend it.
being a soldier is a profession, and it takes a long time to learn how to do it, how to work with others, and how to survive and win a war. In addition, equipment is getting better and more sophisticated, hence a need for longer training periods for recruits.
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The switch to a professional army was part of the rationale to go down to 4 months. It just doesn’t seem to have been very successful
https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=2&post=2137
Another poster suggested community gun ranges. We already see how videos are used in drivers education so that isn’t the way to go. In addition to either a functional professional army or a functional mandatory service system, a reserve system that works like a community or club is I think a good idea. Also first aid and wilderness survival. Make it instagrammable, fun, but also valuable in terms of skills. And yes, have the rifles ready to hand out.
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I do feel like one of the changes from Ukraine is that volunteer militaries are increasingly desirable. In Taiwan, most men over 30 did two years and could handle a rifle. Taiwan could make it really, really hard to invade, and nowadays it could probably distribute arms to the entire country in a few hours. I understand that a smaller population and fewer young people pose problems, but an invasion of Taiwan was always going to be urban combat.
Please make sure that these rifles are not handed out to drivers just yet.
The roads here are tricky enough without adding firearms to the mix! 
Guy
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With regards to rifles, my students tell me that they are trained with 50 year old ones when they do their military service. Maybe there’s a shortage of them, or just doing it on the cheap?
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The army in Matsu have WWII erw howitzers.
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Where’s the population decline? Every time I go out there are way too many people.
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More cats and dogs in the strollers than babies
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I rarely see that anymore, is it just a Taipei thing?
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I’ve seen it other places
Why fix it if it aint broken ?
I think they may be broken 
The local soldiers were not too impressed.
Never seen any place like Matsu…the land that time forgot.
Guradian’s take on this
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That guardian article also contains the same nonsensical paragraphs. It’s as bad as the FT one.
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