OVER 100,000 Taiwanese protesters converged on the presidential office in Taipei on August 3rd, accusing the defence ministry of cover-ups and calling for justice. Their anger was triggered by the death of a young army conscript. Last month Hung Chung-chiu, who was 24, died of heat stroke after being placed in confinement for almost a week and forced to perform a harsh regime of push-ups and jumping jacks in sweltering heat.

It was punishment for bringing a mobile phone with a camera on to the base, an act which, with the island thought to be crawling with Chinese spies, is deemed to be a security risk. Mr Hung, a graduate student from a leading university, died days before his scheduled discharge. The inability of Taiwan’s armed forces to provide answers afterwards, such as why surveillance-camera footage of Mr Hung’s strenuous exercise regime was missing, has created widespread outrage.

The protests took place despite 18 personnel being charged by army prosecutors. A sergeant has been charged with abuse and faces life imprisonment for forcing Mr Hung to perform “cruel” physical exercises that went beyond “what the ordinary human body can endure”. Others were charged with meting out an illegal punishment, since Mr Hung’s offence should have earned merely a reprimand. But protesters insist that only the small fry have been charged, and that high-ranking officers should take responsibility. Whether they will is unclear.

The government has been caught off-balance. President Ma Ying-jeou and his cabinet quickly agreed to protesters’ demands for a commission to investigate miscarriages of justice in the armed forces. The furore helped claim the scalps of two defence ministers in quick succession. Taiwan’s parliament has also amended laws to transfer jurisdiction of most criminal cases involving servicemen in peacetime to civilian courts. It is a milestone of sorts for a young democracy. Taiwan was under martial law until 1987, and it was military courts under the Nationalist (KMT) party that often went after dissidents with charges of sedition. Many of those who were jailed are now politicians in the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Questions remain about the future of Taiwan’s armed forces. Conscription, which the KMT introduced in 1949, is due to end in 2015 as the army becomes an all-volunteer force. In the days when the threat from China seemed imminent, military service was viewed by Taiwanese as an honourable duty. But now Mr Ma has instituted policies for closer business ties with China, and the China threat appears to many to have diminished. Young Taiwanese men view 12 months’ military service as a nuisance and an obstacle to establishing their careers. As a consequence, even before Mr Hung’s death, the army struggled to get enough recruits. Now, his fate and the bullying that is common in conscript armies may only deter Taiwanese all the more from joining up voluntarily.

Taiwan’s plans to abolish conscription by 2015 come at a time of concerns about defence spending’s dwindling share. Over the past couple of decades, Taiwan’s military budget has fallen from 3.8% of GDP to 2.1% this year. Taiwanese policymakers claim that it is therefore harder to pay for a professional army (which, in the long run, is more cost-efficient than conscription, however). Mr Ma has promised to raise defence spending but has failed to do so, though China’s military build-up continues. Meanwhile the DPP, which used to oppose conscription, has changed its mind.

As well as voicing concerns about the army, this week’s protests also had an economic dimension. The demonstrators were mainly students and young professionals. This generation has been hardest hit by Mr Ma’s failure to keep his promises to boost Taiwan’s economy. Unemployment stands at about 20% for new graduates, compared with a little over 4% for the country as a whole. The heckling Mr Ma received at Mr Hung’s funeral was not only because of the conscript’s death.