Minister of National Defense Lee Tien-yu (
"We take all information leaks seriously. Those involved in this leak will be brought to justice," Lee said when fielding questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Lien-fu (
Chiang confronted Lee and Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Chiang said plans available online even included detailed information, such as the numbers of army unit personnel to be deployed in an attack scenario.
Lee said that missile range plans for every country are treated as "semi-public" information, adding that he could also find China's missile range chart on the Internet.
Chang said, however, that information on national defense must be confidential, adding that the information presented by Chiang on the deployment of armed forces was no exception.
The ministry was embarrassed last Tuesday after reporters from the Chinese-language Apple Daily published an article detailing their purchase of two bags of shredded paper from Chief of the General Staff Hou Shou-yeh's (霍守業) office for NT$40 at a recycling facility.
The reporters said they had deciphered information about the movement of Chinese and US armed forces as well as Taiwanese military drills from the papers.
Lee was angered by the leak to the Apple Daily, adding that the military needed to review its handling of confidential papers.
The ministry issued a press release after the report, saying that Hou's chief aide and the general staff's confidential secretary had been punished by being transferred to other positions, while Hou had been admonished.
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