Colonel Pan Ai-chu (潘愛珠), deputy director of the mainland affairs research division of the Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB), will soon become the first Tai-wanese woman to be promoted to the rank of major-general in more than 40 years of Taiwanese military history.
Pan, who has been involved in the study of Chinese intelligence since joining the MIB more than 20 years ago, will be promoted to the directorship of the MIB's mainland affairs research department on Saturday.
As the post is traditionally reserved for an officer with the rank of major-general, Pan will be promoted to the rank of major-general at the beginning of next year in accordance with military service regulations.
Military sources said Pan has already passed the physical examinations required for promotion to the rank of general.
As part of the promotion formalities, the sources said, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Chief of the General Staff General Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明) and General Teng Chu-lin (鄧祖琳), director of the Political Warfare Department under the Ministry of National Defense (MND), will meet with Pan over the next few days.
The MND would not comment on Pan's promotion, saying only that the ministry does not normally announce military personnel changes until after they are formalized.
Pan, who has a master's degree from the military-run Fuhsingkang College's Graduate Institute of Political Science, has received much acclaim from the government and military leadership for her analyses of mainland intelligence and suggestions on the development of relations across the Taiwan Strait, military sources said.
According to MIB sources, Colonel Pan's analytical reports were very useful during three critical periods -- the 1996 Tai-wan Strait crisis, former President Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) defining of cross-strait ties as a special "state-to-state" relationship in July 1999, and last year's presidential election, which ushered in Taiwan's first peaceful transition of power.
Pan will be Taiwan's third female general. The first was Chiang Yi-ying (姜毅英), a close aide to General Tai Li (戴笠), director of the MIB's precursor, known as the "chun-tung-chu" (軍統局) in Chinese. Chiang impressed her superiors with many remarkable accomplishments while developing clandestine radio stations for intelligence broadcasting in the regions of Hong Kong and South-east Asia during the eight-year War of Resistance against Japan-ese Aggression.
The second women general was Major Chou Mei-yu (周美玉), a military medical officer who contributed a great deal to the establishment of the National Defense Medical College. Chou was promoted to major-general in 1958 and retired from military service in 1972.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary