’BOUNCED CHECKS’:The DPP said that to make serving in the military more attractive, young people should learn skills they can use after they have completed their service

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 27, 2015
By: Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporter

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over the government’s failure to fulfill its promise to end compulsory military service and replace it with an all-volunteer military.

Following an announcement by the Ministry of National Defense that the plan to terminate compulsory military service by the end of next year, and to exempt Taiwanese males born after 1993 from military duty would be postponed due to an insufficient number of recruits, the DPP said the government’s failure was due to its attempt to use the issue to win votes.

“There are pluses and minuses in all recruiting systems, so if the KMT wants an all-volunteer military, it must come up with a solution for the decline in the nation’s birthrate,” DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said at a press conference after the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.     [FULL  STORY]