Chief of the General Staff General Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴), who was killed yesterday in a helicopter crash in New Taipei City, had been in charge of the Ministry of National Defense’s General Staff Headquarters since July last year, succeeding retiring admiral Lee Hsi-ming (李喜明).
The 62-year-old air force general and his entourage were on a routine pre-Lunar New Year mission to visit troops at Dongaoling Base (東澳嶺) in Yilan County.
Prior to his taking up the General Staff Headquarters post, he had served for 15 months as vice minister of national defense, and from Feb. 1, 2015, to March 1 last year as air force commander-general. He was administrative deputy minister of defense before that.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
As air force commander, Shen promoted joint operations training, and disaster prevention and rescue.
After graduating from the Republic of China Air Force Academy in 1979, Shen was posted to the Great Desert Program, working with the Saudi Arabian government in Yemen Arab Republic until the Saudi Arabian government transferred diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China in 1990.
At the time of his death, Shen was the officer from that program still on active duty.
He graduated from the Air Command and Staff College in 1992, and following France’s sale of Mirage 2000-5 jets to Taiwan in the late 1990s, Shen was among the first group of Taiwanese pilots sent to France for training. He later served as instructor for other air force pilots.
He went on to study at the US Air Force’s Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama, graduating in 2002.
Alexander Huang (黃介正), a strategic studies professor at Tamkang University who had known Shen for a decade, yesterday told The Associated Press that the general had stood out as a pilot and an officer.
“He was very calm and very stable, and unlike other army guys he was always smiling, so he [had] got a specific leadership style that also made him a popular leader in the entire military,” Huang said.
Shen was very disciplined, well-versed in knowledge of modern digital devices, to the extent that he could show his younger subordinates a trick or two, and was physically fit, receiving full marks during his annual physicals as air force commander, sources said.
Those familiar with Shen said that he valued the importance of scientific proof and professional analysis.
A military source said Shen’s fluency in foreign languages, as well as his knowledge of military affairs and diplomatic relations, made him a great choice as chief of general staff and to help promote the government’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
Deputy Chief of General Staff General Liu Chih-pin (劉志斌) last night was named acting chief of general staff to ensure the military’s capability to continue its operations as normal.
Additional reporting by CNA
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS