President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) called for continued peace in the Taiwan Strait and stressed the importance of peaceful development in the region at a memorial event yesterday marking the 65th anniversary of the historic Battle of Guningtou (古寧頭戰役) on Kinmen.
The 1949 battle was a tough fight in which Republic of China (ROC) troops repelled an attack by a 10,000-strong Chinese communist force and captured about 7,000 of the communist soldiers, Ma said during his speech at a base of the Kinmen Defense Command.
Saying that about 1,200 ROC soldiers died and many others were injured in the battle, Ma expressed gratitude to military personnel and civilians on Kinmen for playing an important role in safeguarding the outlying island group.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
Both sides of the Strait should learn from the past and “seek continued peace across the Strait,” he said, adding that “this is the most important thing as we remember the Guningtou battle.”
On Oct. 25, 1949, communist forces set off from the Chinese city of Xiamen to launch an attack on Kinmen just a few kilometers away as a planned first step in an invasion of Taiwan proper.
In a 56-hour battle, ROC troops were able to score a resounding defeat of the communist forces. It is seen as a significant victory for the ROC in setting a foundation from which it not only safeguarded Kinmen, but also the nearby Penghu Islands and Taiwan proper in the following decades.
A ceremony aimed at stressing the importance of peace was also scheduled yesterday, with Ma ringing a ceremonial bell at the Kinmen Peace Memorial Park on the battlefield of the Battle of Guningtou.
Ma and other senior government officials and Battle of Guningtou veterans also visited the Taiwu military cemetery to pay their respects to those who sacrificed their lives in cross-strait battles to protect the country.
A Taiwanese veteran recalled the battle as he returned to the battlefield yesterday for a series of commemorative events.
Hsiung Chen-chiu (熊震球), a soldier who fired the first shell to fend off the Chinese communists in 1949, shared his memories of the fight. The shell he fired was seen as the beginning of the 56-hour battle.
The battle began when Hsiung and his brothers in arms noticed the opposing Chinese communists attempting to make a beach landing on Kinmen, the 84-year-old said.
“They did not take a break, and neither did we,” Hsiung said while recalling their fight against China and describing it as a success.
Speaking about his feelings attending the commemorative events on Kinmen, Hsiung said: “I feel sorry for those who were buried and left behind.”
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
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
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
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS