TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Military reservists who complete five rounds of training will be eligible for a special bonus, the Legislative Yuan decided Friday (May 13).

Facing China’s aggressive military stance, Taiwan has been beefing up its reservist system, launching a new agency in January, while calling up recently discharged military personnel to return for 14 days of training.

In a move to make the system more attractive, lawmakers on Friday approved a motion to give financial benefits to reservists starting from their fifth call-up and valid retroactively from Jan. 1, CNA reported. At the same time, the reservists will be able to receive a cut in income tax worth 150% of their salary during the period of the call-up, though the tax exemption cannot be used in combination with other tax benefits, the report said.

A total of 15,000 people are expected to be called up for two weeks of training during 2022, the first year of the new system. The early rounds of training began in March and the performance of the reservists have drawn extensive media coverage, especially as the Russian invasion of Ukraine underscored the need for more efficient military reservist and territorial defense systems.