The military has seen 20 cases of defections to China since 1949, Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明) revealed Wednesday at the legislature.
Among the cases, 17 are with the air force, two with the army and one with the navy, Tang said.
The defections took place between 1949 and 1989, and no case has been reported since.
Tang released the figure at a meeting of the Defense Committee of the legislature in response to inquiries from an opposition lawmaker about the number of defections to China.
Tang did not reveal any further details of the defections and yesterday the Ministry of National Defense refused to elaborate on the minister's figure.
The air force also declined to speak on the issue.
However a book published by Taipei-based Wings of China describes in detail most of the air force's defections.
In 1949 alone, three planes -- a C-47 transport, an AT-6 trainer and a PT-17 trainer -- were flown to China from bases in Chiayi, Kaohsiung and Taichung, according to the book Defections from Formosa. A total of six air-force personnel defected with the three planes.
Over each of the next seven years, excluding 1952, there were two to three defections on a variety of aircraft.
In 1963, Captain Hsu Ting-tse (
In 1981, Major Huang Chih-chen (黃誠) committed the first defection to China in an F-5 series plane. The plane was carrying another pilot, Hsu Chiu-lin (許秋麟). Huang forced Hsu to parachute before landing in Fujian's Fuzhou.
The most recent defection took place in 1989, when Major Lien Hsien-shun (
A defense official, who wished to remain anonymous, said it is hard to pinpoint why these military personnel betrayed their country since none of them had displayed any unusual signs prior to their defection.
"But from some of these defectors, we found clues. Huang Chih-chen, for instance, was heavily in debt for some time before he flew to China," the official said.
"Lin Hsien-shun was found to have serious family problems before he defected. We are not sure of the connections between personal problems and defections. But the finding has helped us prevent defections by plane from happening again," he said.
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
Recent movements by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been “highly unusual,” but the military maintains a grasp of the situation, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said on Friday, after the military for the first time said it was monitoring troop movements in China’s Dacheng Bay (大埕灣). The minister gave the remarks to reporters before appearing at the legislature on the first day of its new session. The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday evening released an air force surveillance photograph of a PLA Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and said it was monitoring the PLA Rocket Force and ground
RSS