Taiwan is facing the pressure of sluggish population growth and insufficient military resources
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| FILE PHOTO - A guard of honor from Taiwan marches during a welcoming ceremony for visiting Prime Minister Ralph Gonzalez of St. Vincent and Grenada in front of Taiwan's presidential palace. |
At a time when the threat from China is growing and Taiwan urgently needs to step up its response, Taiwan's military is under pressure from decelerating population growth and increasingly scarce sources of troops.
CNN reported from Taipei on Saturday that Taiwan's military shortage cannot be solved through the defense budget or the purchase of more weapons.
Democratic Taiwan, with a population of 23.5 million, faces a growing challenge of recruiting enough young men to serve in the military. Taiwan's interior ministry said the challenge was at least partly caused by Taiwan's low birth rate.
The decibels of belligerent noise made by the Chinese Communist Party authorities are getting louder and louder, threatening that they will never give up force to seize Taiwan in order to realize the CCP’s so-called national reunification. However, Taiwan's population growth has shown a downward trend since 2020, when Taiwan urgently needs to upgrade its armed forces to deal with the threat from China.
Declining or even negative population growth due to lower birth rates is not a unique problem in Taiwan. In East Asia, South Korea's birth rate is 0.79, the lowest in the world. Japan is 1.3, Taiwan is 0.98, and China is 1.15.
In order to keep the total population constant, the birth rate must reach 2.1. Population growth in countries and regions below this birth rate will slow down and eventually turn negative. Due to China's strict so-called one-child policy that a couple can only have one child in the past 30 years, China's population growth rate decline curve is the steepest in the world.
The deceleration or even shrinkage of population growth will cause various problems, including pension problems (more people retire and fewer people work), education problems (schools have difficulty recruiting qualified students and can only lower enrollment standards), economic problems (labor and consumption or lack thereof) and defense issues.
These problems also exist for China and Taiwan. China's problems are worse because of a more steep decline in population growth. But this situation does not bring much comfort to Taiwan, because China's population is 1.4 billion, while Taiwan's is only 23.5 million. China's population is much larger than Taiwan's.
In addition, many researchers who study China have also pointed out that the Chinese Communist Party, struggling to cope with various domestic problems, may try to take major actions, including attacking Taiwan, to relieve itself, in order to increase the public's support for the Chinese Communist regime, or at least This can be used to completely block any criticism.
Faced with the increasing military threat from China and the lack of manpower in Taiwan's military, the general public in Taiwan is in favor of extending the military service period to alleviate the shortage of military manpower. But the proposal to alleviate the problem has been opposed by some young people in Taiwan who must serve in the military. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said a few days ago that careful discussions are underway, and the relevant procedures have yet to be completed.
