An emergency-response mechanism activated on March 19 following the shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (
His remarks came during a breakfast meeting between People First Party (PFP) legislators and leading members of the government's national security apparatus.
Legislators asked the officials to explain why the national security mechanism was launched on March 19, the eve of the presidential election, when Chen was attacked in Tainan.
According to Huang Lai (黃磊), deputy director of the National Security Bureau (NSB), the bureau's regulations do not spell out what the national security mechanism requires it to do.
PFP Legislator Sheu Yuan-kuo (
Huang said NSB had an internal emergency-response mechanism to deal with crises, "but I think measures handling crises based on decisions jointly made by top agencies from both the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office can be generally regarded as part of the national security mechanism."
Representatives from the Ministry of National Defense said its regulations included no mention of a national security mechanism and that on March 19, the ministry received no order to launch such a mechanism.
PFP legislators including Chou Hsi-wei (
In response, Lin stressed that the launch of the national security mechanism was in accordance with the Constitution but that did not affect military personnel.
Secretary-General to the Presidential Office Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) further explained the mechanism after meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正) and his PFP counterpart Tsai Chung-hsiung (蔡鐘雄) yesterday afternoon.
"After the launch of the national security mechanism, chiefs from agencies dealing with cross-strait affairs, diplomacy, national defense and finance and economics have to have a meeting as soon as possible in order to monitor the activities of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and economic development," Chiou said.
Chiou said that the launch of the mechanism did not affect servicemen's ability to go home to vote on March 20.
According to Chiou, the mechanism had been used three times since Chen came to power: following the terrorist attacks on the US in September 2001; after the Bali bombing in 2002; and during the SARS outbreak last year.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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