Taiwan’s military could consider recruiting foreign fighters to address a troop shortage as pressure from China grows.

Lawmakers and security experts have been discussing how to bolster troop numbers, and the creation of a “foreign legion” is one of a number of suggestions under review.

Richard Chen, a legislator, said that it could be based on a US model, where foreigners could spend two years in service and get awarded with citizenship, but that a formal consultation process “has yet to start”.

The radical proposal comes amid a legislative battle which the government says threatens deep cuts to its defence budget – at a time when Donald Trump, the US president-elect, says the island must pay more for American protection.

An alternative to increased spending to recruit more military personnel – albeit one not yet being formally proposed by the government – is “introducing migrants and creating a kind of foreign legion”, said Alexander Huang, a professor at Tamkang University in Taipei.

Data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ (IISS) Military Balance 2022 report shows that the island’s 169,000-strong active military personnel is currently backed by some 1.66 million reservists.

China’s People’s Liberation Army, by comparison, has more than 2 million active soldiers and 500,000 reservists.

Taiwan has taken inspiration from Ukraine’s defence against Russia by boosting its civil defence initiatives and ramping up military spending.

Starting from last year, Taiwan extended its mandatory military service period from four months to one year.

But Taiwan’s falling birth rate – one of the world’s lowest – is expected to limit the number of available conscripts in the years ahead.

However, the island is also home to almost 1 million foreign residents, mostly from south-east Asia, according to official statistics.

China regards democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has never renounced the use of force to take control of it. Beijing frequently threatens Taipei with incursions of warships and military jets and other grey-zone tactics, which regularly test the island’s defences but stop short of direct confrontation.

This week, the Taiwanese coastguard detained a Chinese vessel suspected of damaging an internet cable in the waters around the north-east of the island.

Two years ago, some of Taiwan’s outlying islands were almost completely cut off from the internet after damage to its subsea cables by Chinese vessels.