High-level Presidential Office staff were unhappy with leaks that led to reports President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) observed a missile exercise on Tuesday, sources said yesterday.
Citing a “reliable military source,” Chinese-language newspapers reported on Wednesday that a major missile exercise had been carried out on Tuesday at Jioupeng (九鵬) base in Pingtung County and that Ma had been among the observers.
The reports said the missiles tested included the Hsiung-Feng 2E (HF-2E), which has a range of around 600km and has not yet officially entered the military’s inventory.
Both the Presidential Office and the Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm or deny the reports on Wednesday.
Sources said yesterday that senior officials had ordered an investigation of the Presidential Office and the ministry to determine who leaked the information about the exercise and Ma’s attendance.
Sources said the timing of the leak was sensitive because the reported exercise came one day before the Mainland Affairs Council announced that Taichung had been selected as the venue for the fourth meeting between Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and president of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).
The Chinese-language United Evening News, meanwhile, reported yesterday that the missile tests had not been a success.
The ministry, in keeping with its usual practice, declined to comment on the paper’s story.
In his annual presidential address on Double Ten National Day, Ma said Taiwan would “never ignore the other side’s military threat despite significant improvements in cross-strait ties.”
China celebrated 60 years of Chinese Communist Party rule on Oct. 1 with a parade in Tiananmen Square that spotlighted its high-tech weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS