First women reservists training held in Taiwan

As part of their effort to enhance their forces, Taipei's defence ministry declared in January that more than 200 women would be allowed to join voluntary reservist training.

On Tuesday, following the participation of 14 former women soldiers in a five-day training programme in Taoyuan city, defence ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang told reporters: "You may not see any 'Rambos' here...but what you will see are our male and also first batch of female reservist soldiers who are willing to use their time to return to the barracks for training."

"I think this is very important in ensuring our country's safety and demonstrating the people's resolve in protecting our country."

On Tuesday the former women soldiers pulled gas masks over the heads, crawled across a playground, patrolled streets by a temple and performed other mock defence exercises.

"Poisonous gas dissipated, clear to take off masks!" one of their officers yelled before they quickly removed their gear. 

Reservist Tang Mi — who is a realtor — said that "with no country, there's no home".

"That's why I'm here — because what concerns the country is everyone's business," the 26-year-old said.

In Taiwan, military service and reservist training are mandatory for men, while women have the option to join the armed forces as volunteers.

As tensions between Taiwan and China soar, military advisers have pushed for Taiwan to recruit more reservists and get the public ready for a possible invasion, including by giving females the opportunity to train. Some lawmakers have even proposed including women in some form of mandatory service. 

Last year, the animosity between Taipei and Beijing increased due to China's massive military practices around the island in reaction to Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan when she was the US House speaker.

Following that, to demonstrate their discontent with the gathering of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Kevin McCarthy — Pelosi's replacement, in California, last month — Beijing conducted war games that simulated a blockade of the island.