President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday punished Chief of the General Staff Yen Teh-fa (嚴德發) with one demerit and Army Commander General Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) with two demerits following an outcry over visits on March 29 by unauthorized civilians to a restricted-access base housing US-made AH-64E Apache helicopters.
According to a press release issued by the Presidential Office last night, Ma said the visit to the 601st Air Cavalry Brigade base in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭) falls under the purview of Yen and Chiu and that their “lack of supervision” demonstrated a lack of military discipline that compromised military security.
Led by Minister of National Defense Kao Kuang-chi (高廣圻), Yen, Chiu and other military officials presented a report to Ma on a recent spate of military scandals after the military conducted a review involving all units on Tuesday.
Photo: CNA
Kao offered to resign to take responsibility for the Apache incident, but Ma asked him to stay to strengthen discipline and maintain morale in the military, Presidential Office spokesperson Charles Chen (陳以信) said.
Deputy ministers of defense Liu Chen-wu (劉震武) and Chen Yung-kang (陳永康), Navy Commander Admiral Li Hsi-ming (李喜明), Air Force Commander General Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴), Reserve Forces Command Headquarters Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Bi Hsueh-wen (畢學文) and Military Police Commander Lieutenant General Wu Ying-ping (吳應平) were also present at the meeting at the Presidential Office Building.
Earlier in the day, the ministry announced more punishments, focusing on Lieutenant General Chen Chien-tsai (陳健財), who was removed from his post as commander of the Army Special Forces Command’s Airborne Headquarters.
Taking blame for the fallout and security lapses arising from the unauthorized civilian visits, Chen Chien-tsai has been demoted and transferred to a non-supervisory post as a consultative member at the Army Command Headquarters (ACH) office.
“Chen Chien-tsai did not fulfill his responsibility as the commander in charge of the unit, and did not conduct the suitable followup work on the incident,” ministry spokesman Major General David Lo (羅紹和) said.
“Major General Chien Tsung-yuan (簡聰淵), commander of the 601st Air Cavalry Brigade, was also removed from his post, and transferred to ACH as a consultative member. If the two officers do not take up other military posts within a year, by military regulations, they will be forced to retire,” Lo added.
The Army Special Forces Command Airborne Headquarters, which was headed by Chen Chien-tsai, has direct jurisdiction over the 601st and 602nd Air Cavalry Brigade, among other specially trained elite units, including paratroopers, amphibious fighting battalions, reconnaissance helicopter and attack helicopter operation units.
The 601st and 602nd brigades, based in Taoyuan’s Longtan District and Taichung’s Sinshe (新社) respectively, are the two units responsible for the service and operation of the helicopters, the last of which were delivered in October last year.
A total of 61 Bell AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters, obtained from the US in arms procurement packages during the 1990s, are also deployed at these two brigades.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
CHINA’s BULLYING: The former British prime minister said that he believes ‘Taiwan can and will’ protect its freedom and democracy, as its people are lovers of liberty Former British prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday said Western nations should have the courage to stand with and deepen their economic partnerships with Taiwan in the face of China’s intensified pressure. He made the remarks at the ninth Ketagalan Forum: 2025 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prospect Foundation in Taipei. Johnson, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, said he had seen Taiwan’s coastline on a screen on his indoor bicycle, but wanted to learn more about the nation, including its artificial intelligence (AI) development, the key technology of the 21st century. Calling himself an
South Korea yesterday said that it was removing loudspeakers used to blare K-pop and news reports to North Korea, as the new administration in Seoul tries to ease tensions with its bellicose neighbor. The nations, still technically at war, had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. It said in June that Pyongyang stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had become a major nuisance for South Korean residents, a day after South Korea’s loudspeakers fell silent. “Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,”
RSS