■ Military affairs
Safe Taiwan key for Japan
Defending Taiwan is defending Japan, political analyst Hideaki Kase said in Tokyo yesterday. Speaking at a seminar organized to promote defense cooperation among the US, Japan and Taiwan, Kase said that if China were to attack Taiwan, Japan would be plunged into a crisis similar to that before the 1894 war between the Ching Dynasty and Japan. He said that this is why Japan has begun military exchanges with Taiwan in recent years. Saying that the Communist regime in China is doomed to collapse, Kase said the most important thing for Japan now is to safeguard Taiwan's security.
■ Military affairs
Ammunition theft probed
The Ministry of National Defense said yesterday that it will track down over 11,000 bullets suspected of being stolen from the military and discipline those who are responsible for dereliction of duty. Ministry officials said that a thorough check on an ammunition depot on July 19 found a shortage of 11,700 rounds of 9mm bullets. A task force formed to investigate the missing ammunition decided that the missing rounds were ammunition that the military wanted to phase out, the officials said. The task force has since questioned three suspects and found in the home of one suspect 790 9mm bullets. The military court in Kaohsiung will continue to pursue the case. In view of the incident, the ministry will discipline the officials involved and ask for heightened management of ammunition to avoid a repeat of the incident. The ministry started a large-scale check of ammunition depots after Kaohsiung police seized a large haul of ammunition, including rocket-fired grenades used by the military, when they tried to prevent a battle between rival gangsters earlier this year.
■ Crime
Fake bomb found
The police yesterday retrieved an alleged explosive package but discovered it to be a fake. The package was discovered by pedestrians in the underpass in front of Ming Chuan University around 1:40pm yesterday. Whoever placed the package had written "Warning! This is a bomb" on the package so pedestrians immediately reported it to the police. The Taipei City Police Depart-ment's Shihlin Precinct immediately sent its explosive experts to the scene to disarm the alleged bomb but officers later confirmed that there were no explosives inside the package.
■ Society
Ma the matchmaker
Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has the chance to be a matchmaker for army Major General Chang Shao-kang (張少康). While Ma was leading a group of reporters on a visit to Kinmen yesterday, Chang's friends asked Ma to do a favor for them because Chang, 47, is now the only bachelor among the nation's generals and admirals. Chang was on a business trip in Taipei while Ma was visiting Kinmen so he did not know his friends in Kinmen had made the request of the mayor. However, when approached by reporters, Chang said that he was not worried about his marital status. "I have dedicated myself to my country," he said. "As for marriage, I will leave the decision to God." Chang said that he has dated ever since his teenage years but he has never met the right person. "It is difficult to be a soldier's wife," he said. "For example, I have to relocate from time to time. That is one reason that I am still single now."
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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