President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday apologized for the handling of a cluster of COVID-19 cases on board a navy ship that has left 28 crew infected, saying that as commander-in-chief, she holds ultimate responsibility for the military.
In an address at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Tsai acknowledged that the outbreak on the supply ship Panshih (磐石) has drawn a great deal of attention from the public.
As commander-in-chief, “the military’s business is my business,” Tsai said.
Photo: CNA
Although the military has done much to bolster Taiwan’s disease prevention efforts, it made many errors in its handling of the Panshih case, she said, apologizing for those errors causing a public health risk.
Tsai said that she had asked the military to rectify the situation as quickly as possible, adding that the military’s identification on Tuesday night of four areas of negligence in its handling of the case represented only the beginning of a full investigation into the matter.
“We will not attempt to evade responsibility for this,” Tsai said.
The nation remains in a state of readiness not only against the novel coronavirus, but also in terms of national security, she said.
Citing movements over the past month by the Chinese military, Tsai said that Taiwan’s armed forces would continue to conduct essential training and maintain a standard level of combat readiness.
The president was responding to growing controversy over the Panshih, which as part of a three-ship “Friendship Flotilla” that conducted a training mission in Palau from March 12 to 15.
The flotilla returned to Zuoying Naval Base in Kaohsiung on April 9, but the ships’ crews were not allowed to disembark until Wednesday last week due to a directive that sailors are only allowed to disembark 30 days after docking in another nation.
After the Central Epidemic Command Center on Saturday and Sunday announced that 24 people on board the Panshih had been infected with COVID-19 — a number that has since risen to 28 — suspicions were raised that the military failed to report possible cases of the disease on board the ship.
On Monday, the Ministry of National Defense said that it had reviewed the ship’s medical records, which showed that 70 crew members made 71 medical visits, with five having a fever.
However, that night it said that a second review of the ship’s medical records found that 148 crew members sought medical treatment 226 times, including 10 visits for upper respiratory symptoms.
On Tuesday evening, Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) announced the removal of two admirals from their posts pending further investigation of the navy’s handling of the incident, saying that he was willing to accept any punishment from Tsai, including handing in his resignation.
Following her speech, Tsai was asked to address not only the government’s response to the incident, but also the overall purpose of the training mission, given the clear risks posed by the global spread of the disease.
Some media personalities have speculated that the flotilla might have made other stops, as it could have returned to Zuoying sooner.
Asked about the speculation, Tsai said that she could not reveal the flotilla’s exact mission, but added: “If you are asking me whether there were other destinations besides Palau, the answer is ‘no.’”
Separately, the president was asked to comment on Yen’s assertion on Tuesday that he approved the mission on Feb. 20 and reported it to Tsai, who he said “respected” the decision.
Tsai confirmed that she had been informed of the mission during a routine report from the ministry, but played down her role in the military’s planning process.
“The decision was already made — the president should respect it,” Tsai said.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS