INTERNACIONAL
Taiwan’s volunteer military shrinks amid growing Chinese aggression
KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan: As China continues and intensifies its campaign of aggression against the island, Taiwan’s military is struggling to reach recruitment goals for professional personnel, and the challenges to reversing this situation are formidable.
Between 2022 and 2024, some 12,000 service people left Taiwan’s military. Officials in both the government and the military are voicing concern, and once again, there is talk of enlisting foreign migrants into the armed forces, an idea that has been under extremely informal «discussions» for over two decades.
The simplest reason for the drop-off is math. This self-ruled democracy has the second-lowest birthrate in Asia, following South Korea. Military pay could be better but is generally considered competitive. Low morale is often over-hyped but is a factor, as is strong competition from the private sector.
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Soldiers march along a street during the Han Kuang military exercise in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (Photographer: I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
«They’ve been talking about ‘migrant troops’ for close to a quarter of a century! But not even a single official panel or committee has come close to examining the idea,» Dr. Chang Ching, a senior research fellow with the R.O.C. Society for Strategic Studies who served in the Navy for several decades, told Fox News Digital.
«I’ll unreservedly confess the truth as I see it: most Taiwanese aren’t willing to make the sacrifices required for victory in war. Migrant workers serving as essentially mercenaries would only highlight how few of our citizens are willing to fight – even to simply maintain the status quo of de facto independence,» Chang said.
Taiwan needs a strong military to deter its hostile neighbor located roughly 100 miles to the west. In recent years, China has stepped up both bombastic threats and incursions into Taiwan’s air and sea defense zones as it attempts to squeeze Taiwan into submission.
Taiwanese conscripts get their hair cut at a military base in Taichung on Jan. 25, 2024. (SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images)
American Christopher Clifford is better known in Taiwan as YouTuber «Uncle Topher.» His resume is a big reason why around 112,000 Taiwanese frequently watch his videos on geopolitics. Over 20 years ago, «Uncle Topher» was Captain Christopher Clifford, U.S. 101 Airborne Division. Serving during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq gave him an up-close look at the difficulties of invasion, and the even harder challenges of occupation.
Speaking to Fox News Digital in Kaohsiung City, Clifford said that much of his content is aimed at challenging «China invasion sensationalism.» He often points out to viewers that, as a result of China’s now-reversed «One-Child Policy,» Chinese men of fighting age are commonly highly valued «only sons,» men who have a traditional duty to carry on family linages. More importantly, says Clifford, is the economic toll a war would have on not just the region, but the planet – a conflict Clifford believes China may literally not be able to afford.
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Taiwan military forces conduct anti-landing drills during the annual Han Kuang military exercises near New Taipei City in Taiwan on Wednesday, July 27, 2022. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense)
He said that falling troop numbers are a problem but pointed out that most modern militaries – including China’s – are facing enlistment and retention difficulties. «Taiwan’s military is making some much-needed changes – allowing tattoos and modifying insane height restrictions,» he said. «You couldn’t join before if you were over 6″6’.»
However, Clifford sees a future where wars are waged with drones and keyboards. «Cyberattacks and misinformation are, I’d argue, bigger threats than a PRC version of Normandy. People compare Taiwan to Ukraine. But Taiwan is in almost no way comparable to Ukraine or any other conflict area on Earth.»
Much debate is about whether the United States would intervene should China attempt an invasion or blockade. «Of course, I understand the logic behind the U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity, but I fear far too many Taiwanese people – especially younger people – are counting on a rescue from Uncle Sam,» Chang explained.
He is not optimistic about refilling the ranks, explaining that pension cuts of between 15-20% for retired Taiwan military personnel in 2018 «alienated a critical pillar of the ROC Armed Forces – families in Taiwan that had a ‘tradition of service.’» Speaking during an interview near the navy’s headquarters in Kaohsiung, Chang said, «Taiwanese born in the 1990s, for example, don’t give much thought to what province of China an ancestor came from, but they will listen when grandpa says, ‘Don’t sign up! They’ll break their promise to care for you, just like they did to me.’»
An RF-16 fighter jet drops flares during the live-fire Han Kuang military exercise, which simulates China’s People’s Liberation Army invading the island, in Pingtung, Taiwan, on May 30, 2019. (REUTERS/Tyrone Siu)
Taiwan’s government in 2018 said without the cuts, the entire pension program would go bankrupt, and many Taiwanese agreed with the decision to slash what they saw as disproportionately high military pensions. Those who opposed the cuts, however, saw it as a betrayal.
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From the 1950s through the early 2000s, men in Taiwan served at least two years as conscripts. However, as Taiwan graduated into a full democracy, both of Taiwan’s main political parties worked to reduce (and eventually eliminate) mandatory military service. By 2013, conscription was a condensed four-month «boot camp.»
In 2022, then-President Tsai Ing-wen announced a return to the one-year service requirement in place before 2013. While some were unhappy, there were no major protests or efforts to reverse the decision that took effect in January 2024. That same month, Taiwanese voters elected then-Vice President William Lai to succeed the term-limited Tsai. Lai is openly despised by Beijing and relations with China have only deteriorated since his election win.
Taiwanese conscripts look on during a visit by Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te to a military base in Taichung on June 28, 2024. (SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images)
More than 800,000 migrant workers (mostly from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines) reside on the island, according to government stats. Once again, the idea has reemerged that some of them could be the solution to refilling the ranks.
Clifford believes that, while no easy task, there are ways of making it work, perhaps in exchange for the equivalent of an American Green Card. «They could start with a foreign legion of mechanics, engineers, cooks, etc. In peacetime, they would assist with construction projects and disaster relief. In wartime, they could be responsible for setting up other defenses. No rifle required.»
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The U.S. is Taiwan’s strongest ally and its major supplier of arms. President Lai says he hopes to convince parliament to significantly increase defense spending. Taiwan is waiting for already purchased U.S. arms valued at almost $22 billion, according to the Cato Institute. Not having enough trained people able to use these weapons, however, could be a more serious issue than the large backlog.
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Leading evangelicals in push to have President Trump recognize Israeli sovereignty over ‘biblical heartland’
TEL AVIV, Israel – Last week, an influential group of American Christians publicly reaffirmed the Jewish people’s right to Judea and Samaria as the biblical heartland of Israel. The Judea and Samaria area is more commonly known as the West Bank.
The declaration was unveiled at the annual National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Dallas by American Christian Leaders for Israel and was expected to be signed by 3,000 religious leaders before being delivered to President Donald Trump.
The push to apply Israeli sovereignty to the area comes after Trump said last month that his administration would make an announcement on the matter in the coming weeks when asked about annexation.
The Oslo Accords, forged under the Clinton administration, divided the West Bank into three regions: Area A, under full Palestinian jurisdiction; Area B, under Palestinian civil administration and Israeli security control; and Area C, under full Israeli authority.
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The Cave of the Patriarchs, also known as the Cave of Machpelah. The site is the burial place of Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish people, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, and is situated in Hebron in Judea and Samaria, also more commonly referred to as the West Bank.
A 2020 Trump plan, dubbed Peace to Prosperity, envisioned Israel annexing parts of Judea and Samaria, but was shelved in favor of the Abraham Accords, which normalized Jerusalem’s ties with four Arab countries.
«The evangelicals gave Trump the presidency. He will support our position on the Bible and that’s why he chose Mike Huckabee [as ambassador to Jerusalem], who supports Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,» Dr. Mike Evans, founder of Friends of Zion, which boasts just under 30 million members, told Fox News Digital.
The declaration reaffirms «the Jewish people’s inalienable right to the Biblical Heartland of Israel and reject all efforts—both from the United States and the international community—to pressure the Jewish people to relinquish their ancestral homeland in Judea and Samaria.»
The Tomb of Joseph near Shechem (Nablus). Samaria, Jul 6, 2021. (Roee Oz/TPS)
Evans said evangelicals support Israel «because they believe in moral clarity, good versus evil, they are friends of Zion. They see Jews being killed because they’re Jews, not because of land.»
Pastor John Hagee, the influential founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel, told Fox News Digital that Evangelicals «know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will always keep His word to the Children of Israel. From beginning to end, the Bible is a Zionist document mandating that all believers stand with, and bless, Israel and her people.
«For almost half a century, I have been preaching the message that Israel does not occupy the land, Israel owns the land, the title deed of which is recorded in the pages of the Bible. The land was endowed by God to the Jewish people for all time,» added Hagee.
Aerial view of Joshua’s Alter in Judea and Samaria, more commonly referred to as the West Bank. (TPS-IL)
Earlier this week, Fox News Digital reported that some Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) urged the president to recognize Judea and Samaria as Israeli territory. Their letter to the president expressed support for Jerusalem applying sovereignty over the area, which the lawmakers said was «the heart of our shared Judeo-Christian heritage.»
Israel’s Parliament Speaker Amir Ohana on Feb. 23 urged the government in Jerusalem to extend sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, saying full control over the region was the «one and only way» to achieve lasting peace.
Another Likud lawmaker, Dan Illouz, told Fox News Digital that Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre «proved that any withdrawal, any concession, any illusion of coexistence with those who seek our destruction is not just naive—it is suicidal … we withdrew from Gaza, and in return we got Hamas and the massacre of our people. Judea and Samaria cannot become another terror state.»
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President Donald Trump, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu answer questions during a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4, 2025. ( REUTERS/Leah Millis)
«A push for sovereignty in Judea and Samaria would be the end of Israel,» Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli lawmaker and an architect of the 1993 Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, told Fox News Digital. «If Israel were to become a minority of Jews dominating a majority of Palestinians, it would be neither Jewish nor democratic. I don’t believe it could ever happen, but just waving this [idea] is bad enough,» he said.
«The right in Israel believes that Trump would support whatever they demand. But five years ago, he suggested there could be a two-state solution. As such, it is not as clear-cut as it seems,» he added.
Late last month, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to conduct a «massive» counter-terrorism operation in Judea and Samaria after three buses exploded near Tel Aviv, and bombs were found on two others in what is being investigated as a coordinated attack.
Israeli soldiers take part in an operation in Jenin, as it seeks to take out Iranian-backed terror groups. Feb. 24, 2025. (REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta)
«This brutality and forceful displacement of civilians in the West Bank… was never about self-defense, but rather a colonial expansion scheme and an ethnic cleansing campaign,» Ahmad Fattouh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s dominant Fatah faction, told Fox News Digital.
«Annexing the West Bank will set us back to 1948 and destroy any future stability or prospects for peace. Every rational voice understands too well that there is no way forward except the two-state solution; otherwise, it will lead to endless havoc,» he added.
Israel Ganz, head of the Yesha Council, the umbrella group representing Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, is working in conjunction with the government in Jerusalem to push for sovereignty.
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Pastor John Hagee speaks during «March For Israel» at the National Mall on Nov. 14, 2023 in Washington, D.C.
«We started a campaign to push for it, but we won’t do it without the support of the U.S.,» he told Fox News Digital. «Many in the Trump administration are very connected, they know the area, and they believe in our right to this place. They understand that if they want to stabilize the situation, we must have sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.»
«For Israel to be able to continue to survive and thrive along the coastal plain, which produces about 80% of the country’s GDP, then it must keep control of the high grounds in Judea and Samaria,» Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus (ret.), a former IDF international spokesperson and now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.
«If any other entity, Palestinian or otherwise, holds that, it would be used as a way to threaten Israel’s security; its core infrastructure, including Ben-Gurion Airport, and also its population– concentrated in a narrow strip between Haifa [in the north] and Ashdod [in the south]–approximately 15 kilometers wide,» he said.
Palestinian terrorists take up position during a confrontation with the Israeli army in Jenin on July 3, 2023. The Israeli army said it had launched drone strikes in Jenin as part of an «extensive counterterrorism effort.» (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)
Another element, Conricus explained, is that some 500,000 Israelis currently live in Judea and Samaria, and they need to be protected.
«The trends of escalation in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem are highest now since Oct. 7. We see significant terrorist activity in almost all Palestinian cities and continued weakness of the P.A. in exercising control,» he said.
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Ze’ev Orenstein, director of international affairs at the Jerusalem-based City of David Foundation, told Fox News Digital that the Jewish people’s millenia-long connection to the Land of Israel bestows upon them an inherent right to Judea and Samaria.
«The reality is that there is likely no other people on the planet today with a deeper–and longer–connection to any piece of land than the Jewish people with the Land of Israel, in general, and Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, in particular; where the inhabitants continue to worship the very same G-d, speak the same language, practice the same faith, celebrate the same festivals, and walk upon the very same stones, as their ancestors did so many thousands of years ago,» Orenstein added.
INTERNACIONAL
La salud del papa Francisco: el Sumo Pontífice superó la última crisis respiratoria y «descansó bien toda la noche»
El papa Francisco superó la crisis bronquial del viernes que causó preocupación y, según los médicos que lo atienden en el hospital Gemelli, pasó una noche tranquila. No ha requerido más la ventilación mecánica y no hay señales de una nueva infección.
El Papa sigue recibiendo oxígeno suplementario de alto flujo a través de un tubo nasal.
La crisis que sufrió el viernes hizo temer una nueva infección pulmonar porque el Papa inhaló algo de vómito que los médicos le aspiraron, pero no hay señales de que esto haya provocado alguna infección.
La estabilidad se prolongó al domingo cuando el Papa recibió al secretario de Estado o “primer ministro”, el cardenal italiano Pietro Parolin y su segundo, el arzobispo Edgar Peña Parra.
El encuentro para hablar de temas del funcionamiento vaticano sirvió también para mostrar el mejoramiento del pontífice argentino. Ambos han sido recibidos dos veces anteriores por Francisco.
El Papa no pronunció ayer, por tercera vez consecutiva, el Angelus de los domingos. Envió un texto escrito. En el mensaje, en el que reiteró su condena de la guerra que sufren numerosos países, el Papa aseguró sentir en su corazón “la bendición que se esconde dentro de la fragilidad”.
El Papa agradeció a los fieles que rezan por su salud. “Siento vuestro afecto y vuestra cercanía. Me siento como “llevado” y sostenido por todo el Pueblo de Dios”, remarcó.
Los médicos señalaron los progresos del paciente pero no cambiaron el pronóstico reservado que mantuvieron desde que el Papa fue internado el 14 de febrero. Esta reserva significa que no está claro aún que el ilustre paciente haya superado el riesgo de una nueva infección.
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