President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen gave his pep talk while presiding over a ceremony marking Armed Forces Day today.
Stressing the importance of patriotism, Chen encouraged all service members never to waver in their conviction in the nation's cause and to dedicate themselves to fulfilling their duty of safeguarding national security.
He also reaffirmed his administration's commitment to improve safety in the military and enhance welfare services for military personnel and their families.
During the ceremony, 56 outstanding service members and 34 military units were commended for their contributions to the nation.
Those honored included Wu Shun-sheng (吳順生), a chief non-commissioned officer in charge of engineering maintenance aboard the navy's Sea Tiger submarine; Colonel Tsao Chun-fan (曹君範), a section chief at the Army General Headquarters' chemical warfare department; and Tsai Kuo-ching (蔡國清), a battalion leader with the army's special operations brigade.
The 40-year-old Wu has spent 23 years of his life in the submarine fleet, logging 8,000 hours of underwater navigation and 800 hours so far this year. Wu joined the submarine fleet upon graduating from the navy's ship-engineering school. Over the years, he has worked aboard all of the navy's submarines.
Tsao was cited for his contribution in leading a chemical warfare corps to help with disinfection of local medical facilities that were infected with the SARS virus, including Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift