Despite (or maybe exactly “because of”) the city-state’s size and threatening neighbours, Singapore’s military service is almost on par with Israel and South Korea with not less than 2 years of compulsory NS (National Service) for all male citizens and 2nd-gen PR and 2-3 weeks of reservist almost every year.
There have been plenty of talks recently on how to reform Taiwan’s military and increase preparedness in the event of an attack from the other side. If Taiwan introduces a Volunteer Corps scheme to involve APRC holders in a period of training and subsequent yearly reservist, would you join and contribute?
Not familiar with Israel or SK, but talking about Singapore actually even less. A recruit only brings home a monthly allowance of S$580 (NT$12,000) per month. I had plenty of friends complaining about their pay, especially in an expensive AF place like Singapore
Pre-COVID, I would have definitely signed up. Since Taiwan has decided to discard any semblance of democratic governance, it no longer matters to me if the country is taken over by China. I would have been prepared to defend Taiwan as a little outpost of (relatively) free and functional society, but there is now nothing to defend.
The countries with far and away the largest number of people in Taiwan are Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. Given the way they are treated, I doubt if they they are willing to stand and fight for Taiwan’s glory.
There are 20,000 APRC holders in total in Taiwan. How many are willing and able to fight? A couple of thousand total? If the PLA has reached the point where they are willing to flout international opinion and invade, I don’t think the presence of this International Brigade will make much difference.
Yeah, balls to that. I’ll wait until the Taiwanese government considers resident foreigners human enough to stop discriminating against us (e.g., tacitly supporting migrant workers being locked up, excluding the vast majority of us from stimulus vouchers etc.).
You can also guarantee that the volunteer corps registration system won’t accept ARC numbers anyway – “Please ask a Taiwanese friend to help you sign up. Thank you for your inconvenience. Here’s a picture of a sad-looking cartoon animal.”
Even then, I’m sure I’d be more of a hindrance than a help haha.
20,000 ARPC holders, then when you sift out how many can read and write Chinese (army and safety manuals are not set up for English speakers like Singapore), how many can run 1k without dying for exhaustion. Then of those remaining how many of those are willing to die for Taiwan and the DPP?
You’re looking at double digits if you’re lucky. But then again a legion of middle aged fat English teachers putting around on scooters might cause some international outrage if they die in a Chinese drone strike.
An invasion by China would result in the deaths of millions, devastate the landscape, and crush the economy. OTOH, it would apparently rid us of some plague rats, so it’s an ill wind …
No, serving for a foreign military could actually put my citizenship of my home country in danger should I ever manage to attain a second citizenship. That wouldn’t be a risk I would even consider briefly.
I think many other countries have similar laws. So trying to include non-citizens in a military probably would not be a good idea. Despite: Who wants to fight for a country where you can’t even vote?
