Military officials yesterday said that a series of celebrations will be held next year to mark the 90th anniversary of the 1924 establishment of the Whampoa Military Academy in Guandong Province, China, including the premiere of two movies featuring life in the Republic of China (ROC) military.
After the ROC government lost the Chinese civil war and retreated to Taiwan, the academy was relocated to Greater Kaohsiung in 1950 and renamed the ROC Military Academy.
The military is assisting with the filming by opening its bases and lending equipment to the production teams, among other things, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major-General David Lo (羅紹和) said.
Lo added that the ministry will organize the premieres with the movie production companies and take the opportunity to promote all-out defense education and encourage more people to enlist in the military, since the nation is shifting from compulsory military service to an all-volunteer force.
Earlier this year, the ministry postponed the transition to an all-volunteer force to the end of 2016, mainly because it has been unable recruit enough people to meet its targets.
The movies will be released in the second half of next year, Political Warfare Bureau official Yu Tsung-chi (余宗基) said, although he was tight-lipped about the films’ storylines.
The celebrations will also include three musicals to be presented by the military in the first half of next year in the north and south of the nation, Lo said.
Comics and books about significant battles in the nation’s military history are to be published in an effort to increase the public’s understanding of the relationship between the government and the military, the ministry said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai