Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday spent his day working on matters concerning public safety, and chaired an anti-terrorism drill in Dazhi.
"Every local head of law enforcement is responsible for public safety. `Shortage of manpower' is not an excuse anymore," Hsieh said during his opening speech at the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday morning.
Recent attacks
Hsieh mentioned recent attacks and said that police officers need more training to protect themselves safe while they are carrying out their duties.
"As for the Hsichih case, I took it is a challenge for law enforcement officers and is a very serious problem," the premier said.
"How can you expect average people to feel safe while even police officers can be attacked and murdered? We must find the attackers and close the case as soon as possible," he added.
Hsieh also asked law enforcement officers to locate notorious fugitive Chang Hsi-ming (張錫銘) and to arrest him as soon as possible.
"He is a `must-arrest' for our officers," the premier said.
Recruitment
According to a National Police Agency plan, another 1,315 officers will be recruited this year to join the police force.
However, a serious labor shortage still exists.
"The real problem is how to attract more young men to devote themselves to the police force instead of taking advantage of it as an excuse for doing nothing about maintaining public safety," Hsieh said.
After the Cabinet meeting, Hsiehchaired the anti-terrorism drill, which was held by the Cabinet's anti-terrorism office at a classified military site in Dazhi.
No news coverage at the scene was allowed but Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) briefed the press afterwards.
The Anti-Terrorism Office, which was led by Cabinet senior consultant Kuo Lin-wu (郭臨伍), was established in November last year.
Prior to joining the Cabinet, Kuo was the deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council.
It was the first time the office had organized such an event since it was established.
Emergency response
Cho said that the drill practiced emergency responses to five different types of terrorist attacks -- individual violence, radioactive materials, poisoning, biochemical weapons and Internet hacking.
"For the drill, we created three different scenarios. First, unidentified terrorists have entered the country. Second, a plane has exploded and an unexploded bomb has been discovered at CKS International Airport. In the third case, three terrorists have kidnapped a group of hostages at the airport and are now demanding money and transportation," Cho said.
Cho said that he was not authorized to give too much information because what happened during the drill was classified.
But he said that half of the Cabinet's 36 members participated in the event.
The spokesman explained that yesterday's drill involved numerous departments, including the military, the police and the coast guard.
Standard procedure
But, Cho said, the objective of the drill was more like a discussion between the heads of the agencies to come up with a standardized procedure for potential terrorist attacks in the future.
"Our priority is to keep terrorism outside of the country. If that fails, then we will need to eliminate it," Cho said.
"If that fails as well, then we will do our best to rescue the situation and troubleshoot the problems," he added.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods