Former vice minister of national defense General Hu Chen-pu (胡鎮埔) was promoted from a two-star to a three-star general before the Lunar Near Year as he was assigned to take over the director-general's office at the Ministry of National Defense's Political Warfare Department.
Hu was promoted and succeeded Chen Pan-chih (陳邦治) to the post on Feb. 1, while Chen moved to the office of the navy's commander-in-chief. In his new job, Hu will be responsible for the military's public relations, promotions and propaganda-related activities.
Hu graduated from the Army Academy in 1971, with a background in military strategies for armored troops. He is one of the few army officers who started as a low-ranking officer and worked his way up through the ranks in a variety of posts prior to being assigned to the ministry.
Hu became one of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) favorites for the promotion because he was instrumental in supporting Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) on the proposed NT$610.8 billion (US$19.15 billion) arms procurement plan.
Hu served as the military's chief negotiator with the Legislative Yuan for the arms budget.
The special arms budget -- which includes the purchase of three Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) missile batteries, 12 P-3C maritime patrol aircraft and eight diesel-powered submarines -- was rejected in the last legislative session after being blocked by opposition lawmakers.
Hu has developed a great reputation in the army because he has always insisted on adhering to the same orders or standards that he asks his fellow officers and soldiers to do. He was also the first general who would ask for punishment from his superior officers when his soldiers failed a regular physical test.
Hu decided to devote himself to the military because he came from a poor family with eight children.
According to Hu, when he was very young, he once heard his neighbors gossiping, "There are eight children in the Hu family and they are in a great need of money. Therefore, the family's financial credibility must be questionable."
"That remark made me decide to serve in the military because I did not want to become a burden on my family, especially when my parents had worked so hard for all of us," Hu said. "I decided to study hard and become a real soldier."
Under the guidance of his elder brother, Hu Chen-chiu (胡鎮球), Hu Chen-pu joined the army's prep school after he finished junior-high school in Kaohsiung County. Hu Chen-chiu had already joined the military, where he eventually rose to the rank of two-star general and ended his career as deputy director-general of the National Security Bureau in 2003.
Hu Chen-pu later won admittance to the Army Academy in Kaohsiung County, for four more years of education before he was commissioned.
"I spent a total of seven solid school years in Kaohsiung. I studied very hard because I wanted to prove something," he said. "And since I spent most of my time on the campus, it was a real shame that I was still a stranger to the Kaohsiung area after I finished school although I spent seven years there."
Over the years, as he gained in military experience, he also became a skilled negotiator.
For the 2003 Han Kuang Military Exercise in Ilan, Hu Chen-pu, who was then chief commander of the army's sixth battle group, succeeding in winning the cooperation of local officials even though the local government had initially been against the idea of the annual military exercise being held in the area because of environmental concerns.
During a meeting with Ilan County officials, Hu said, "We have never held any military exercises in the Ilan area and that is very bad for national defense because we are not familiar with the county. If there was a war and we lost Ilan County, I will be executed because I am the head of the sixth battle group, which is responsible for defending northern Taiwan. That would be extremely unfair for me as well as for the troops."
His remarks won over the Ilan officials and his success in Ilan was seen as a big plus for him when it came to promotions.
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
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the