President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday called for stricter discipline among military police during an inspection of the Taipei unit.
Tsai, accompanied by National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) and Chief of the General Staff Yen Teh-fa (嚴德發), toured the the Military Police’s 239 Battalion in Taipei’s Dazhi area (大直) in a Cloud Leopard armored vehicle before speaking with staff.
Citing the lyrics of the military branch’s anthem, Tsai said that the military police are responsible for maintaining order among the armed forces and should hold themselves to a higher standard.
Photo: CNA
The president said that the branch needs to understand that its job in the democratic era is to protect democracy, freedom and the rule of law.
The military police were criticized after video footage in February showed a march-past by trainees described as shoddy, while the unit was involved in a warrantless search of a private residence in March seeking government documents dating back to the 1960s and 1970s.
Then-minister of national defense Kao Kuang-chi (高廣圻) vowed to improve training, while the ministry apologized for the improper handling of the investigation.
Tsai’s trip to the 239 Battalion, the military police’s only armored unit, is the fourth trip she has made to inspect military units since taking office on May 20. She has visited air force bases in Hualien County as well as navy and army bases in Yilan County.
She said many officers told her during her inspections that their top concern is a shortage of personnel, along with increasing workloads and pressure to complete training.
Tsai said she would discuss those issues with Feng and Yen so that service and combat units could focus on carrying out their tasks.
She said this would be part of a reform of the armed forces, adding that she is determined to work with everyone to re-establish the dignity of the military.
In other news, Tsai on Monday was ranked the 17th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine in its annual list of the world’s 100 most powerful women.
Tsai was the only Taiwanese on the list, one of a handful of Asian female leaders.
Others from Asia included: South Korean President Park Geun-hye, ranked 12th; Myanmar’s Aung Sun Suu Kyi (26th); Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed (36th); and Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari (52nd).
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has ruled Europe’s strongest economy since 2005, held on to the top spot of the list for the sixth consecutive year, while US presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton was second, with US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen third.
Others making the list included US first lady Michelle Obama (13th) and in 58th, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) wife, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛).
Women from 29 nations in politics, philanthropy, business and technology spheres were on the list, including 12 world leaders, 32 chief executive officers and 11 billionaires.
The list, which was first released in 2004, ranks the women by “money, media momentum, spheres of influence and impact.”
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,