The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday.
Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area.
The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital.
Photo courtesy of the Military News Agency
That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station the brigade at National Defense University’s Fu Hsing College in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), the first combat unit based in Taipei, the source said.
The personnel currently deployed to the airport are about the strength of a company, another source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Plans for how long troops would remain in the area, or whether their remit would expand to jointly protect Taipei’s Boai Special District (博愛特區) alongside military police, have yet to be finalized, the source said.
The Boai Special District has a high concentration of ministries and other government buildings, including the Presidential Office Building at its center.
Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄), speaking on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) on Lunar New Year’s Eve, thanked the air force, army and navy for their hard work and sacrifices on behalf of the country.
In photographs released by the Military News Agency, soldiers with marine equipment could be seen in the foreground with commercial airliners and civilian buildings in the background, confirming their deployment to Songshan airport.
To defend against “decapitation strikes” against the capital, the 66th Marine Brigade has been reorganized as a strategic reserve force directly under the command of the general staff to support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei, the source said.
As part of its reorganization efforts to better support the military police presence in Taipei, the 66th Marine Brigade is to follow the example of the US Marine Corps and remove its armor and artillery units, the source said.
In their place, the brigade would add a drone unit, they added.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
US-CHINA SUMMIT: MOFA welcomed US reassurance of no change in its Taiwan policy; Trump said he did not comment when Xi talked of opposing independence US President Donald Trump yesterday said he has not made a decision on whether to move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Trump’s comments on Taiwan came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing US-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan. “I will make a determination,” Trump said, adding: “I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
RSS