A powerful defense is needed to maintain peace, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday as she led her final remembrance service as Taiwan’s commander in chief for those killed during the 1958 defense of Kinmen County against a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invasion.
Her visit to Kinmen — just a few kilometers from China at its closest point — comes as Beijing has increased military activity around Taiwan.
It was the third time since taking office in 2016 that Tsai has attended the annual memorial, which marks the anniversary of the start of a massive PLA artillery bombardment of Kinmen at the beginning of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis 65 years ago.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The president burned incense, laid a wreath and bowed her head to pay her respects to those who died during the conflict. She was accompanied by Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) and National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄).
Tsai recalled how the troops and civilians “fought with one heart and persisted in repelling the enemy forces who tried to invade.”
“To keep the peace, we need to strengthen ourselves,” Tsai said. “As such, we need to continue to reform the national defense, push for self-reliance, strengthen our defense capabilities and resilience.”
Photo: CNA
The president later attended a luncheon for survivors and family members of those killed during the 1958 bombardment, in which Kinmen was hit with 475,000 artillery shells over 44 days.
“Our position on maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is very firm,” Tsai said at the lunch, adding that there would be no Taiwan today if they had not prevailed during the crisis in 1958.
Fighting broke out on Aug. 23, 1958, when Chinese forces began an intense bombardment of Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang counties in a bid to dislodge the Republic of China (ROC) government, which had retreated from China to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War.
Taiwan fought with support from the US, which sent military equipment such as Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles, giving Taiwan a technological edge.
The crisis ended in a stalemate.
Additional reporting by AP and AFP
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS