President Tsai Ing-wen announced that Taiwan would extend mandatory military service from four months to one year.
The decision comes amid growing tensions with China, which claims the self-governing island as its territory.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, President Tsai announced plans to bolster Taiwan’s defences in the event of an attack from Beijing.
“Peace will not fall from the sky…Taiwan is on the front line of authoritarian expansion,” she said.
President Tsai said conscripts would also undergo more intense training, borrowing some elements from the United States and other advanced armies. She added that the island’s current defence system was inadequate to deal with aggression from China, which has one of the world’s largest and most advanced armies.
Taiwan’s military had declined since the early 1990s when all men over 18 were required to serve in the military for up to three years. Over the following decades, the service was shortened to one year and 10 months before being further reduced to four months. The new rule will come into effect in January 2024 – the same month Taiwan will elect its next president.
“It is an extremely difficult decision, but as head of the military forces, it is my inescapable duty to defend national interests and our democratic way of life,” President Tsai said.
“Nobody wants war; Taiwan and the Taiwanese are the same, and the international community is the same,” she said, adding that “China’s military aggression has become more and more evident after its game of war in August”.
Tensions between Taipei and Beijing skyrocketed in August following a visit to the island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Beijing responded by staging its largest-ever military exercises in the seas around Taiwan. Taipei called the exercises “very provocative”.
In October, Chinese President Xi Jinping did not rule out using force to unite with Taiwan in his opening speech at the Communist Party Congress in Beijing. Later in the week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said China was pursuing unification with Taiwan “on a much faster schedule” than expected.
Taiwan has also become a flashpoint in US-China relations, given the island’s close ties with Washington.
This is believed to have been a major talking point when Mr Xi met US President Joe Biden at the G20 summit in November. Following the meeting, Mr Biden said he did not believe China would invade Taiwan.
But tensions rose again on Monday when Taiwan reported one of the largest Chinese incursions around the island, with 71 Chinese air force planes, including fighter jets and drones, entering in the so-called Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone.