Former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) passed away yesterday at the age of 100, his family said.
Hau passed away at 2:47pm at the Tri-Service General Hospital in Taipei due to multiple organ failure, according to a statement released by the office of his son, former Taipei mayor and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
Hau Pei-tsun was born in August 1919 in China’s Jiangsu Province. He served as chief of the general staff of the Republic of China Armed Forces from December 1981 until his retirement as an army general in December 1989.
Photo: CNA
He then served as minister of national defense from 1989 to 1990 and as premier from 1990 to 1993.
In the statement, Hau Lung-bin said his father devoted his whole life to the nation.
“In my mind, he was a real hero, ” Hau Lung-bin said, adding that despite being a career soldier and preparing for war his whole life, Hau Pei-tsun was afraid that a war would break out and hoped for lasting peace and safety for Taiwan.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the family would not hold a funeral service at this time, as the government is discouraging public gatherings, he said, adding that a service would be held later.
The Presidential Office offered its condolences to the family.
KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said in a statement the party offers its deepest condolences to the former premier’s family.
“The KMT will forever remember the legendary life of ‘Uncle Hau,’” he added.
The Ministry of National Defense in a statement said that Hau Pei-tsun was a disciplined man, believing that one must embody what one teaches.
He dedicated his life to serving his country and is a role model for all members of the military, the ministry said.
He endeavored for the development and renovation of the armed forces and its equipment, oversaw the restructuring of the military, and witnessed the completion of the research and deployment of the Indigenous Defense Fighter, as well as the research and development of the Sky Bow, Sky Sword and Hsiung Feng II missiles throughout his career, it added.
Former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) office director Wang Yen-chun (王燕軍) said that Hau Pei-tsun is considered a general of renown and had enjoyed good fortune throughout his long life.
Additional reporting by Sherry Hsiao and Yang Chun-hui
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
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
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS