Marines Cheng Chih-ya (
"They are now fully qualified frogmen. They have proved it with their remarkable performances during training, even better than some of their male counterparts," said Lieutenant Colonel Ku Chang-chih (
Ku said that he was very impressed by privates Cheng and Hsu during training, since both of them performed well in the 50m swim with one breath and the 26km run, doing better than everybody else in the program.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
"They fully deserve all the plaudits," Ku said.
Apart from Cheng and Hsu, a total of 118 other marines, including ranks from privates to lieutenant colonel, volunteered for the training program. Only 44 of the volunteers finished, however, graduating as qualified frogmen.
The 123rd Amphibious Training Program was an intensive nine-week program, including physical training, military combat training and underwater demolition training. In the middle of the program, trainees have to endure a "three-day-stay-awake" exercise that sees them continue the physical challenges at sea and on land without sleep for three consecutive days.
All 44 marines were officially certified as frogmen yesterday morning after completing the "Road to Heaven" challenge, which involves doing various tough exercises along a 50m long path that is littered with coral and rocks.
"I just wanted to challenge myself and prove to everyone that I could do it, and I did," Hsu said.
Cheng had already made the front pages in August last year when she gave up a place on the national swim team and the chance to be an elementary school teacher to join the Marines.
"You always have chances to prove yourself and challenge yourself as a Marine. That is something I like about it," Cheng said.
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