Residents of Matsu (
The planned cut is part of the MND's second-stage military restructuring project aimed at establishing an elite deterrent force in the face of China's threat.
According to the MND's newly sanctioned restructuring plan, the total number of military personnel stationed on the three outlying islands of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu will be trimmed to about 10,000 by 2008.
Opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsao Erh-chung (
"Unless China renounces the option of using force against Taiwan, we should not unilaterally disarm ourselves. Without adequate defense deployment, Matsu's security will be at stake," Tsao said.
Chen Shu-lien (陳書廉), president of the Matsu Chamber of Commerce, and several senior executives of the organization paid a visit to Lienchiang County Commissioner Chen Shui-sheng (陳雪生) Thursday to express their concern about the MND's troops reduction plan.
"Because of the government's gradual reduction of garrison troops in Matsu in recent years, Chinese fishing boats have often poached in waters near Matsu or even come ashore for illegal trading. If the number of troops is cut further, the security situation will get even worse," Chen Shu-lien said.
Worse still, he said, Matsu's economic development will also be seriously affected if the number of garrison troops is further trimmed.
The Matsu island group is under the jurisdiction of the Lienchiang County Government. It has only a limited number of civilian residents. For years, its economy has relied heavily on garrison troops' consumption.
For security and economic well-being, Chen Shu-lien urged the county government to push the central government and the MND to rethink the Matsu troop reduction plan.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai