Deputy Defense Minister General Houh Shoou-yeh (
The defense ministry confirmed Houh's departure over the weekend but tried to play down the significance of the meeting he will attend. "It is simply a meeting hosted by a civil organization," said ministry spokesman Huang Suey-sheng (
Houh will deliver a keynote speech at the opening of the US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona on Sunday, Huang said.
Taiwan's government is to seek parliament's approval for a controversial US$18 billion special defense budget to buy six US-made Pac-3 anti-missile systems, eight conventional submarines and a fleet of submarine-hunting P-3C aircraft, over a 15-year period beginning next year.
Richard Lawless, a deputy undersecretary at the US Defense Department, will also speak at the conference, according to the US-Taiwan Business Council.
This is the third in a series of conferences addressing the future of US defense cooperation with Taiwan and the defense procurement process.
It will provide a progress report on Taiwan's future defense needs and review its communications and command systems, submarine and missile defense programs, the council said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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