Dai Li Memorial Hall (戴雨農先生紀念館), the Military Intelligence Bureau’s (MIB) on-site memorial for intelligence operatives killed in the line of duty, was reopened on March 8 after two years of renovation.
The memorial houses the spirit tablets of 75 people killed while conducting intelligence operations at home or abroad, including military intelligence officers and assets, as well as a book of deeds of 4,903 military heroes.
The bureau also disclosed that Liu Liankun (劉連昆), a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) major general, executed by Beijing in 1999 for espionage, was among the fallen honored at the shrine.
Liu, the PLA’s then-director of logistics, was the highest-ranking Chinese officer the bureau has ever turned, a bureau official said on condition of anonymity, adding that Liu’s defection was motivated by discontent with China’s political direction at the time.
Liu passed on crucial intelligence to Taiwanese officials about the Qiandao Lake Incident in 1994, the missile crisis in 1996 and then-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s (鄧小平) death in 1997, an official said.
PLA brigadier general Shao Zhengzong (邵正宗), who was also executed in 1999, is honored at the shrine next to Liu.
The shrine also commemorates major Ma Mei-chiang (馬美強), a military intelligence officer killed in Moscow in 2000 while on a mission.
As Liu and Shao died providing crucial intelligence to Taiwan, the bureau considers them martyrs of the nation, which justifies their enshrinement at the memorial, the official said.
It is customary for military intelligence officers to make an offering at the shrine prior to a mission, both to obtain blessings from the heroic spirits and to remind themselves that they must succeed in their mission or die trying, he said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in a speech she made at the memorial to mark its reopening that elevating the nation’s intelligence capabilities has never been more important, as China refuses to abandon military aggression.
The motto “We write the blank pages of history” written on a wall at the memorial testifies to the uncelebrated and unknown sacrifices of the intelligence community in defense of freedom and democracy, Tsai said before extending her gratitude to their memory.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
A 23-year-old Taichung man vowed to drink more water after his heavy consumption of sugary tea landed him in hospital with a kidney infection and sepsis. The man, surnamed Lin (林), used to drink two cups of half-sugar oolong tea while working at a food stall, where he often had to wait a long time before urinating. Lin developed kidney stones and noticed blood in his urine, but ignored the issue after taking medication for three days. A month later, he went to the emergency room after experiencing a recurring fever and was diagnosed with a kidney infection that led to sepsis, landing
RSS