Ex-recruits look back as alternative diplomatic service phased out

By Joseph Yeh, CNA staff reporter

Facing an unrelenting military threat from across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan has long required all qualified male citizens to perform compulsory military service once they hit the age of 18.

That has normally involved basic military training, but since the early 2000s, conscripts have had the option of fulfilling their obligation through alternative forms of service, including in diplomatic roles in overseas technical and medical missions.

To date, a total of 1,726 individuals have served in the diplomatic service program, mostly in countries with which Taiwan has formal diplomatic relations, according to TaiwanICDF, the semi-official organization responsible for international development aid and the program's implementation.

The program will soon be coming to an end, however, as the government has scaled back the alternative service program to boost Taiwan's self-defense capabilities and eliminate potential loopholes for draft dodgers.

Many of those who did their compulsory service abroad on diplomatic missions were sorry to see that the program they felt was rewarding is coming to an end.

One of them is Chang Keng-hua (張耕華), who served as a diplomatic service conscript in Sao Tome and Principe from 2004 to early 2006, when the West African island state was still a diplomatic ally. (It would sever ties with Taiwan in December 2016.)

A graduate of Yilan-based National Ilan University's Horticulture Department, Chang told CNA that he wanted to perform his compulsory service by doing something related to his expertise.

He saw an opportunity to apply to the alternative service program, and after winning the draw for one of the limited positions available, he was sent to the country he had never heard of.

Chang remembered vividly that he and a group of TaiwanICDF workers first arrived in a remote rural area of Sao Tome and Principe at night.

There was no light at all, so they kept their car headlights on as the only source of lighting while trying to convince the locals that they were there to help them grow higher-quality vegetables.

"Locals told us that we were the first group of foreigners ever to visit that area," Chang said. They were looking forward to Taiwan's help and hoped for our return soon, he added.

"That kind of feedback, the feeling that you are needed, was very important to me," he said.

Strong sense of fulfillment

In fact, the joy and sense of fulfillment was so strong that immediately after he finished his year of service in Africa, Chang later officially joined TaiwanICDF and made international assistance his life-long pursuit.

As a full-time employee, he was sent to Guatemala, one of Taiwan's allies in Central America, stayed there from 2006 to 2014, where he assisted local farmers with their marketing efforts.

During weekends, meanwhile, he helped out at church-funded schools for underprivileged students, offering them free gardening classes, and together they built some small "happy farms."

The gratification he felt from helping young Guatemalans was the main reason that, after returning to Taiwan, he began serving as a foster father and later adopted three children.

That sense of accomplishment while performing diplomatic service has been shared by current recruit Hung Chin-yi (洪沁毅).

Hung began his service in November 2025 in Paraguay -- Taiwan's only diplomatic ally in South America -- where he is responsible for the Health Information System (HIS) Taiwan built there.

Initiated in 2014, the HIS Project is aimed at modernizing Paraguay's public health care system by introducing a digitized health information management system. Previously, most medical records in Paraguay were handwritten.

Hung, who received a master's degree from the Taipei-based National Chengchi University's Department of Management Information Systems, told CNA he was more than happy to be able to put his knowledge into practice in the allied country.

"Doing such a meaningful job while engaged in compulsory service is extremely fulfilling and cannot be measured by the amount of money you earn," he said.

He said it had already been an unforgettable experience for him, and he hoped the diplomatic service program could continue in years to come.

According to TaiwanICDF, among its current 151 male employees, 65, or 43 percent of them, were former diplomatic service recruits.

Asked to comment on what TaiwanICDF would do to make up for the impeding phasing out of alternative service, Peifen Hsieh (謝佩芬), deputy head of TaiwanICDF, told CNA currently about one-third to nearly half of all members of Taiwan's technical/agricultural missions overseas are made up of conscripts.

"So we will definitely face some major challenges without them," she said.

In response, TaiwanICDF is expecting to expand its existing overseas volunteer programs to fill the gap, she added.

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