TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The military will start next year with the calling up of dozens of women reservists before expanding the scale of the measure, Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said Wednesday (Dec. 28).

He was speaking the day after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced that compulsory military service would be lengthened from four months to one year beginning in 2024 to counter China’s increasingly aggressive behavior.

Chiu told lawmakers from the opposition New Power Party (NPP) that the recall experiment for women would cover the size of one company, which usually amounted to between 80 and 150 soldiers. The defense chief said he knew some women wanted to be called up, but until now the military had not been equipped to welcome them, but that was changing now, the China Times reported.

Chiu described the move as part of a gradual process, adding the planning for the locations and units the women would serve in was still underway. The likelihood was that they would be distributed between north, central, and south Taiwan, he said.