The US government has pledged to support the Republic of China Honor Guard’s bid to compete in the World Drill Championships in Miami in May next year, a high-ranking official said.
The development is a breakthrough for the Ministry of National Defense’s international outreach, the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that US officials indicated that their government would support Taiwan’s right to participate at the event, even if Beijing protests.
Members of the honor guard have competed at the event as individuals, including former seaman first class Su Chi-lin (蘇祈麟), who last year won fourth place for tossing and catching his rifle blindfolded, the source said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Senior Airman Huang Shih-chen (黃士宸) this year won ninth place in the event, despite dropping his rifle after accidentally injuring himself with a bayonet, they said.
The ministry yesterday said in a statement that the honor guard would compete bearing the nation’s proper insignia and uniforms, adding that 10 members have been selected for the event.
The ministry said that it is committed to raising Taiwan’s international profile and hopes that the public will support such endeavors, adding that Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) believes that exhibition drills are a major opportunity to increase the visibility of the nation.
Su yesterday told reporters that he was happy to hear that the ministry is officially supporting the honor guard’s participation in the event, which would provide its members moral support and allow for better preparation.
When he signed up for the event on his own initiative, the ministry was not supportive, Su said.
“There was no precedent for team members to participate in international events and the ministry was worried that sending a uniformed soldier abroad could cause Beijing to object,” he said.
Since retiring from the military, he has been helping drill teams from schools in economically disadvantaged areas obtain drill rifles and training, Su said, adding that he hopes the honor guard the best.
Separately, the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee has passed a resolution calling for the Executive Yuan to increase the salaries of service members who form the honor guard.
The Cabinet had previously proposed a NT$5,000 monthly bonus for the honor guard’s regular members and NT$3,000 for alternates, less than the ministry’s proposed NT$10,000 and NT$5,000 respectively, the resolution says.
As the honor guard represents the nation at state functions, and in recognition of the accolades it has won over the years, the government should reverse its decision and follow the ministry’s original plan, it says.
Additional reporting by Huang Hsin-Po
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS