The Air Force is organizing a fly-by over Taipei for Aug. 11 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Air Force Day on Aug. 14.
"We will get all our fighter aircraft in the air, including Mirage 2000-5s, F-16D Falcons, IDFs [Indigenous Defense Fighters] as well as the well-known Thunder Tiger Aerobatics Team (
"It has been 16 years since the last time we had a fly-by over Taipei. It is time for us to do so again because it is the 70th anniversary of 814 Air Force Day."
Liu made his remarks during a press conference at the Ministry of National Defense yesterday morning. To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Air Force Day, Liu said five concerts will be held in Taipei, Hualien, Hsinchu, Tainan and Penghu, a photo exhibition at the Sun Yat-sen (
The fly-by will be at Taipei's Sungshan Command Headquarters on Aug. 11 and there will also be an open house at the base. The concerts will be held at Tainan Culture Center on July 24, Penghu Culture Center on July 25, Hualien Culture Center on July 31, Hsinchu Culture Center on Aug. 1 and Taipei's National Concert Hall on Aug. 9.
In addition to local media, many foreign correspondents, including Japanese journalists, were present at yesterday's press conference.
The atmosphere was a little awkward when Ministry spokesman Major General Yu Sy-tue (
During World War II, the Chinese Air Force had approximately 300 aircraft while the Japanese had around 2,000.
The Chinese Air Force began to bomb Japanese battleships and marines' command headquarters in the Shanghai area On Aug. 13, 1937.
The Japanese decided to retaliate on Aug. 14 and assigned 18 bombers from Taipei to attack the Chinese Air Force's Chienchiao base in Hangzhou. However, three of the Japanese bombers were shot down by the Chinese Air Force, which suffered no casualties.
The victory encouraged Chinese pilots while destroying the myth that Japanese pilots were invincible. The Air Force decided to make Aug. 14 "Air Force Day."
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
RSS