The navy's three fleets started a 2-week friendly trip visiting Taiwan's major harbors yesterday, to promote better relations with the public and attract more volunteers to join the military.
The three fleets included La Fayette-class Frigate, Perry-class Frigate, and Anchorage-class LSD.
The naval fleets are visiting harbors at Kaohsiung, Hualien, Suao, Keelung, Taichung, Penghu, and Tainan, where the public is welcome to visit them.
La Fayette frigate and the other two fleets opened to the public at Kaoshiung Navy Port yesterday, attracting many people to see inside the frigates. The fleets will still be open to the Kaohsiung public tomorrow morning, and then it will launch its 2-week friendly tour around Taiwan and the outlying island of Penghu.
"The fleets' friendly tour was in line with the Ministry of National Defense's [MND] policy of promoting good relations with the public, so we welcomed and provided a longer time for people to visit the fleets," said the navy's new commander-in-chief General Chen Pan-chih (
The navy officers are here to encourage people to volunteer for military service, added Chen.
Chen Pen-chin and acting Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) also called on the public to support the NT$ 610.8 billion (US$19.3 billion) arms bill which he says is crucial to Taiwan's security.
With the beginning of the new legislative session, the MND has cut down the proposed NT$610.8 billion arms bill to NT$590 billion, hoping the arms deal will quickly be approved by lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the MND has been moving from reliance on conscription to a volunteer basis. By 2008, volunteer recruits will comprise 60 percent of the total military manpower, while 40 percent will still be conscripts.
To encourage people to volunteer for military service, the Ministry of National Defense will raise volunteers' monthly salary to about NT$35,000 and offer attractive retirement pensions.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS