Taiwan is facing an intensifying debate about draft dodging among young men after the government moved to extend the term of compulsory military service amid heightened tensions with Beijing.

The island’s government has extended the term conscripts must serve to one year, and the contrast between its warning that the stakes have never been higher in the face of increased pressure from Beijing and the growing reluctance to serve has fuelled a debate about weaknesses in its mobilisation system.

The results highlighted a widening gap between government messaging about preparing for the worst and the public perception that war remained unlikely – a sentiment likely to increase resistance to conscription.

The issue burst into public view after at least 19 male celebrities were swept up in a widening investigation into claims that prospective conscripts were faking medical conditions – often high blood pressure – or hiring stand-ins to take physical tests for them.

Local prosecutors have alleged that a criminal ring led by a man surnamed Chen charged between NT$50,000 and NT$500,000 per person (US$1,600-16,000) – and as much as NT$3.6 million in one high-profile case – to help conscripts falsify diagnoses.

So far, 28 people, including Chen, have been charged. They include Darren Wang, an actor who is also popular in mainland China and is accused of making the NT$3.6 million payment for a fake hypertension diagnosis.