Taiwan has moved to tighten conscription guidelines after a string of high-profile instances involving celebrities and younger males who falsified their medical data to evade obligatory navy service.
As well as, the proposed modifications would additionally mandate different service for transgender and intersex folks, a transfer that has sparked backlash from rights teams and different members of the general public.
The island’s defence ministry on Monday unveiled a draft modification to its bodily classification requirements, overhauling eligibility for exemption, different service and common service in what officers described as a bid to shut long-standing loopholes and restore equity to the draft system.
If the revisions pending approval by the legislature are adopted, the exemption standards can be sharply narrowed.
Solely people with a physique mass index (BMI) above 45 or a top of 144cm (4 ft 7 inches) or under would qualify for exemption. Beforehand, exemptions got to males with a BMI above 35 or excessive top measurements.
For a person standing 170cm tall, the brand new guidelines would increase the exemption weight threshold from simply over 101kg (222lbs) to 130kg.
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