Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday expressed outrage after a retired army general had on Tuesday implied that China has the right to fly warplanes over Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
Retired army lieutenant general Chi Lin-liang (季麟連), who chairs the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Huang Fu-shin branch — the party’s veteran affairs organization — told a radio show that any country can fly in the skies over the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), which he claimed to be “international airspace.”
“Let them [the warplanes] come through — it’s fine,” he said.
Photo: CNA
Beijing’s military drills near Taiwan are more frequent than the Ministry of National Defense has disclosed, but they should not be considered harassment of Taiwan, he added.
During yesterday’s legislative session with defense and intelligence officials, DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said that Chi abetted China’s psychological warfare against Taiwan and that the Ministry of National Defense’s Political Warfare Bureau should take action against him.
“Such a comment would have been laughable if it came from an ordinary citizen, but not from the mouth of a retired general,” he said, adding that some retired military officers have made remarks about China that appeared to have been “coordinated at a high level.”
DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said that Chi had spread disinformation in an attempt to downplay Beijing’s hostile intent.
Taiwan has laid sovereignty claims to the skies above the Pratas Islands as an extension of the atoll’s land mass, National Security Bureau Director-General Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) told lawmakers.
“Chi’s comment that no nation owns the skies over the Dongsha Islands is absurd to the international community and the nation,” he said.
The bureau is aware that retired generals have echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s statements, he added.
The Political Warfare Bureau would bolster its operational security protocols for former military members, agency Director-General Chien Shih-wei (簡士偉) said.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
RSS