Taiwan's military pledges its allegiance to the nation, and it is unlikely that it would stage a coup as might be the case in other newly emerging democracies, a spokesman for the Executive Yuan said yesterday.
Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (
"We have faith in our own military," he said at a press conference at the Government Information Office in Taipei yesterday afternoon.
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told the media briefing that he was quite confident that a military coup like the one that took place in Thailand on Tuesday would not happen in Taiwan.
"The military culture in Thailand as well as many other Southeast Asian countries is quite different from what we have here in Taiwan. ... The majority of the Taiwanese people believe that we must play by the rules," Wu said.
He added that a strong democratic structure was in place in Taiwan, which meant that a coup would be almost impossible to carry out.
Wu also used the opportunity to say that the government's attitude toward cross-strait relations remained unchanged, and that the government's policy of opening up to visitors from China had not changed.
He said that 60 Chinese employees of pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson came to Taiwan for a meeting on Aug. 16, while 421 Chinese employees of Microsoft came to Taiwan for their annual managerial meeting on Aug. 20. Another 328 Chinese publishers arrived yesterday to attend a seminar for cross-strait publishers.
For the near future, Wu said, the MAC has approved requests from another four groups of Chinese visitors: 100 members of a Chinese Buddhist organization who will arrive on Oct. 4, 500 members of the Chinese Hakka Association on Oct. 27, 600 travel agents on Nov. 1 and another 100 Chinese publishers for a separate seminar on Nov. 10.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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