June, 1991 Taiwan takes delivery of four German-made minesweepers, purchased as "multi-purpose coastal boats" for the state-run Chinese Petroleum Corporation.
Aug, 1991 Taiwan signs Lafayette frigate deal with France.
April, 1993 The Central Trust of Taiwan signs, on behalf of the navy, a deal with an Italian company for a survey ship.
May, 1993 Navy General Headquarters' weapons procurement office is inaugurated, with Captain Yin as its chief executive. Yin was scheduled for promotion to rear admiral at the beginning of the following year.
Sept, 1933 Captain Yin visits France in connection with the Lafayette frigate deal, accompanied by procurement office colleague Captain Kuo Li-heng (
Nov, 1993 Letter of accusation against Yin, Kuo and many other naval officers is sent to the Presidential Office. It accuses Yin of receiving NT$5 million in bribes from an arms broker mediating the navy's purchase of a survey ship from an Italian company.
Dec 8, 1993 Yin takes action to fight the allegations. He visits, at night, three key people involved in the minesweeper, frigate and survey ship deals and secretly records conversations with them. The three are a military official and two former naval officials who became arms brokers after retirement. Yin is accompanied by Kuo on two of the visits.
Dec 9, 1993 Yin goes missing at around 8:50am after going to meet somebody for breakfast near Navy General Headquarters in Taipei's suburban Tachih district.
Dec 10, 1993 Yin's body is found off Suao (
Dec 11, 1993 The first of two cassette tapes recording conversations between Yin and the three key arms purchasers is recovered. It is later, suspiciously, demagnetized. Navy investigators, who obtained access to the tapes before anybody else, include Rear Admiral Liu Chin-an (劉錦安), currently director of the Ministry of National Defense's Judge Advocates Bureau, Rear Admiral Li Kun-tsai (李昆材), then director of Navy General Headquarters' weapons procurement office, and several others.
Dec 15, 1993 The murder is reported by the press despite a gagging order imposed by the military.
Dec 16, 1993 Yin's colleague, Kuo, is taken into custody for suspected links to the murder.
Dec 18, 1993 An autopsy by Taiwan's top coroner, Yang Jih-sung (楊日松), finds evidence that Yin might have been murdered.
Dec 20, 1993 Andrew Wang (
Jan 1, 1994 Lawmaker Chu Kao-cheng (
Jan 21, 1994 Shan Yi-chen (單亦誠), an arms broker who had tried to mediate Taiwan's purchase of minesweepers from Germany, flees the country amid suspicions of his involvement in the Yin murder. Shan was alleged to have bribed Kuo Li-heng with NT$2.5 million in an attempt to win a contract for parts provision for the German-made mine sweepers.
Feb. 14, 1994 Tu, the German arms agent, meets in Singapore with members of a task force investigating the Yin murder. Tu denies any connection with or knowledge of the murder.
March 18, 1994 Then lawmaker Chen Shui-bian (
April 19, 1994 Chen accuses navy Captain Chen Kuo-hsiang (
Oct 1994 Kuo Li-heng is sentenced to life for leaking military secrets and taking NT$12 million in bribes from arms brokers.
May, 1995 Ex-navy Deputy Commander-in-Chief Cheng Li-cheng (
Oct 1996 Commission-taking scandal surrounding the Lafayette frigate deal between Taiwan and France is exposed by the French media.
Nov 1996 Yang I-li (
March, 1997 Yin's widow, Li Mei-kuei (
March, 1998 Yin's younger brother, Yin Ching-luan (尹清楓), accuses Admiral Liu Ho-chien (劉和謙), who had been chief of the general staff at the time of the murder, of behind-the-scenes involvement in the Yin murder.
July 3, 2000 Arms broker Shan Yi-chen (
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
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