A US military delegation will come to Taiwan in November to evaluate the combat strength of the marine corps, which is widely considered to be the strongest branch of the armed forces, sources said yesterday.
The delegation will evaluate the marine corps' overall combat capabilities based on its training and operations.
The evaluation is expected to be used in US government deliberations on which weapons it should sell Taiwan to help strengthen the nation's marines.
But it might also be used by pro-China elements in the US government to argue that it is not worthwhile for the US to sell weapons to Taiwan, since the country's military is too weak to defend against a Chinese attack.
Similar evaluations have been made by the US military over the past few years of Taiwan's air force, navy and army.
These evaluations exposed a number of problems that the US hadn't suspected.
The navy, for instance, was found to have a lower combat strength that expected, which prompted the US to propose the sale of four Kidd-class destroyers.
In its evaluation of the air force, the US discovered that its aircraft shelters could not withstand aerial attacks.
If the marine corps turns out to as poorly as the other three services, it could have serious consequences on future US policy, said a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The US government might start to consider whether Taiwan is still worth saving," the official said. "Our understanding is that the US will send troops to defend Taiwan only when Taiwanese troops can withstand attacks from China for some time on its own.
"There are various estimates of the time that Taiwan's military can defend against China's attacks on its own. Some say three days. Some say a week. Either would not be enough for the US to prepare for deployments of troops to the Taiwan Strait," he said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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