Taiwan Military Has Trouble Recruiting Volunteers

choi

Peter Enav, As Economy and China Ties Improve, Taiwan Can't Find Enough Volunteers for Military Service. Associated Press, May 13, 2013.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/n ... /8375743/story.html

Quote:

"Taiwan wants to field a leaner and meaner military of 176,000 volunteers by 2015, in place of its current compliment of 235,000 volunteers and conscripts. But the military fell 4,000 short of its goal of 15,000 volunteers last year, and likewise was 2,000 short of its much smaller target of 4,000 in 2011.

"The basic salary for a voluntary recruit is around 30,000 New Taiwan dollars ($1,000) a month, with bonuses for service in combat arms — the infantry, armor and artillery — and for extended periods of enlistment.

My comment:
(a) Many things are relative. The starting salary for a newly minted college graduate in Taiwan was $9,000 a year on average, and that was BEFORE the Great Recession. Thus the starting salary for the same must be somewhat lower.
(b) Alexander Chieh-cheng Huang/ Tamkang University  
黃介正 (assistant professor)/ 淡江大學國際事務與戰略研究所
http://www.titx.tku.edu.tw/web/english/02-Alexande-E.htm