The US kept the military well-informed of the missile tests that China was to launch prior to the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis, KMT Legislator Nelson Ku (
In the book Admiral Ku the Helmsman, Ku said that the missile tests did happen in March 1996, as the US had predicted.
"The information was provided to us in October 1995, during my visit to the US. The US predicted that China would launch some kind of military action to influence the [Taiwan's] presidential elections the following March. They said China was likely to launch a missile every two to three days into the Taiwan Strait and that such missile tests would last for quite some time," Ku wrote.
"The US asked us to take such military intimidation seriously. I reported the message to my superiors after returning to the country.
"The missile tests did happen in the lead-up to the presidential elections as predicted by the US," Ku wrote.
Ku commanded the navy between 1994 and 1997. He is the first of the military leaders who were in command during the crisis to make public the flow of information between the US before and during the crisis.
At a press conference held yesterday to mark the release of the book Ku gave more details.
"Because of the information provided by the US, the military had enough time to prepare for the missile tests," he said.
"We did not worry too much about the missile tests since we knew in advance that they were aimed at influencing our presidential elections. We did not think they would develop into a war," he said.
"The way in which the tests were conducted met our expectations. The only thing out of ours or China's expectations was that the tests did not scare people away from voting for [former president] Lee Teng-hui (
The Taiwan Strait Crisis led to greater trust between Taiwan and the US and some changes in the Sino-US relations, he said.
"The US does not want to see a war in the Taiwan Strait. They take it as their obligation to prevent Taiwan from suffering from any aggression," he said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS