Hi Gordon, in the article we were not saying that Taiwan has abolished conscription, we were reporting on the fact that the Defense Minister announced in December 2016 that it would be abolished. Looking back at our news stories from the last decade, there has been a constant thread of plans and then u-turns! https://www.wri-irg.org/en/taxonomy/term/127
Hi Gordon, in the article we were not saying that Taiwan has abolished conscription, we were reporting on the fact that the Defense Minister announced in December 2016 that it would be abolished. Looking back at our news stories from the last decade, there has been a constant thread of plans and then u-turns! https://www.wri-irg.org/en/taxonomy/term/127
There is an alternative service. We don't have contact with any politically-motivated conscientious objectors in Taiwan, but there are quite a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses there, who do perform an alternative service, which they describe as successful: https://www.jw.org/en/news/legal/by-region/taiwan/successful-alternative-service-conscientious-objectors/
Thanks,
Hannah