The activation of an emergency response system Friday night after the shootings of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) did not mean service personnel were unable to return to their hometowns to cast votes in Saturday's election, Deputy Minister of National Defense Lin Chong-pin (林中斌) said yesterday.
Lin spoke yesterday to the defense committee of the legislature, which he attended on behalf of Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明), who was receiving treatment for an eye disease at the Tri-Service General Hospital.
Rumors have been rife in the aftermath of the presidential election that the activation of the emergency response system was responsible for some 200,000 to 250,000 soldiers being unable to return home to vote.
Opposition legislators attacked Lin yesterday saying that the activation of the emergency response system was unnecessary given the lightness of the president and vice president's injuries, yet might have significantly influenced the election outcome.
Lin said that only 13,000 troops had been unable to vote, and that this was because they were on combat alert, a standard procedure on election days because of the threat from China.
Their status had nothing to do with the emergency response system, Lin said.
"These service members were unable to cast votes because of having to stay on duty to ensure a safe and steady environment for the presidential elections," Lin said.
"It had nothing to do with the activation of the emergency response system following the shootings of President Chen and Vice President Lu on Friday in Tainan," he said.
Lieutenant General Lei Kuang-tan (雷光旦), deputy chief of the general staff for operations, said at the meeting that these service members could have had a chance to cast votes but that because of a change in combat preparation rules last year, they were unable to execute their election rights during the presidential election.
In the past, service members could be granted a half-day's leave to cast their votes in an election, but these rules had been changed.
Tang's absence from the meeting sparked strong criticism from opposition lawmakers, who accused him of pretending to be sick to avoid the meeting.
Yesterday's meeting of the defense committee was about the situation in the Taiwan Strait and arms purchase plans after the presidential elections, on which Tang was invited to make a report.
But Tang failed to show up at the meeting because he has been admitted into the hospital for treatment of an eye disease.
Tang was accused by opposition lawmaker Chin Huei-chu (秦慧珠) of the People First Party of using eye diseases as a pretext for not attending the meeting.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS