Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) said yesterday that Taiwan should strengthen its anti-terrorism awareness and training after last Friday’s incidents involving explosive devices.
“We should conduct an overall review of our inter-ministerial anti-terrorism operation mechanism in the wake of the recent failed bombings on the high-speed railway and at a legislator’s office,” Lee said on the sidelines of a legislative session.
Lee also said he felt saddened by the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday that left three people dead and more than 170 injured, calling them an act of terrorism.
“While terrorist attacks have been rare in Taiwan, we should heighten our alert on terrorism,” Lee said.
In the past, he said, Taiwan has focused mainly on preventing natural disasters.
The Ministry of the Interior would join forces with national security agencies and other government agencies to reinforce the nation’s anti-terrorism mechanisms and response plans, Lee said.
Asked whether security measures would be tightened on the high-speed rail following Friday’s incident, Lee said a balance needs to be worked out before any concrete steps are taken.
“If current security guidelines for commercial air travel were applied to the high-speed rail, passenger-flow systems would have to be redesigned, which would cause a lot of inconvenience,” Lee said, adding that other considerations should also figure in the decision.
At the moment, he said, the most important thing is to determine why the individuals planted the explosive devices on the train.
“Police and prosecutors are investigating whether it was an isolated incident or part of a series of organized terrorist attacks,” he said.
Two men suspected of planting the devices on Friday were taken into police custody on Tuesday.
Hu Tsung-hsien (胡宗賢) and Chu Ya-tung (朱亞東), both in their 40s, traveled to Guangdong Province, China, on Friday soon after allegedly leaving two suitcases containing explosives in a toilet on a high-speed train and two more outside Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Chia-chen’s (盧嘉辰) constituency office in New Taipei City (新北市).
None of the devices exploded.
The two men were arrested with the help of Chinese authorities and were repatriated on Tuesday.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS