The military's emergency-response mechanism was activated yesterday but it did not raise its alert level after the shooting of Presi-dent Chen Shui-bian (
"The armed forces are already on alert during the election period. But the alert levels have not been raised because of the shootings of the president and vice president," a senior official with the military spokesman's office of the Ministry of National Defense said.
"An emergency-response mechanism has been activated for the incident. It will not affect the original plans of the military to send soldiers back in batches to their hometowns to cast votes on Saturday," the official said.
All commanding officers were to remain at their posts to keep abreast of any situation starting from 5pm yesterday and the high-alert status will be maintained until 8am today, according to ministry officials.
The ministry convened an emer-gency meeting after the shooting. Ministry officials said that all department chiefs and ranking military officials took part in the meeting and that the results would be announced later.
The shooting was seen as more of a shock to the National Security Bureau (NSB), which is responsible for the security of government leaders, than to the defense ministry. The bureau declined yesterday to comment on the shooting, leaving it up to the Presidential Office to comment.
But the Presidential Office did not touch upon security issues in its explanation of the attack.
The shooting is sure to raise concerns about the security guards that the bureau provides for the president and vice president as well as security measures for the two leaders.
A marine corps master sergeant, who declined to be identified, said the bodyguards of the president and vice president were not as good as they are supposed to be. The bodyguards are largely military officers, with the rest recruited from the police.
"They are not alert enough to emergency situations. With a small team of special operations forces, I could easily neutralize all these bodyguards," the sergeant said.
"The National Security Bureau should be more careful in its selection of bodyguards for the president or vice president," he said.
An army officer voiced similar concerns.
"It is incredible that the president and vice president were shot at the same time without their bodyguards discovering any un-usual signs or suspect elements," the officer said.
"Judging from evidence available from television footage and accounts of the incident by the Presidential Office, the bullets were fired from a handgun at close range," he said.
"One of the bullets penetrated through the window of the jeep which carried Chen and Lu. It was believed to be the one that hit Chen's stomach," he said.
"A man who could approach the president and fire a gun at him without being discovered might be using a modified gun which did not look like a gun at all. Or he could have opened fire from inside his pocket," the officer said.
"Whatever the situation might be, the bodyguards and security network surrounding the president and vice president have very serious problems, which should be identified and addressed as soon as possible," he said.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,