A survey on public security and social order conducted by the Ministry of the Interior found that residents in Taichung City, Taichung County and Taipei County were the most disgruntled in the nation.
Less than 40 percent of people residing in Taichung City expressed approval of the city's performance in maintaining order.
In the survey, most attributed worsening social order to a weakening economy and rising unemployment (25.9 percent), followed by weakened public power and political unrest (13.21 percent), the degeneration of traditional values (10.95 percent), inadequate jail terms for criminals, (8.72 percent), sensational media reporting (8.66 percent) and poor education (8.29 percent).
Taipei City, which enjoys the highest ratio of police to civilians, was ranked 18 in this survey in residents' views on social order. Sparsely populated counties such as Penghu and Taitung were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 -- ?showing that a large number of police officers is no guarantee of an improvement in social order.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
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