The Ministry of National Defense yesterday issued a statement refuting rumors that US Marine Corps members are to visit Taiwan to help train Taiwanese troops.
Local media reports on Monday said that US instructors are to begin training Taiwanese marines and amphibious special force units in assault boat and speedboat infiltration operations for four weeks at the Zuoying Naval Base in Kaohsiung.
US Department of Defense spokesman John Supple on Wednesday sent an e-mail to the US military’s Stars and Stripes newspaper to say that news reports about US Marines training Taiwanese soldiers are “inaccurate.”
“The United States remains committed to our ‘one China’ policy,” Supple wrote.
Supple said that US policies should continue to allow Taiwan to obtain services and materials sufficient to allow Taiwan to defend itself while calling on Beijing to cease military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan, and conduct meaningful dialogue with Taiwan.
Ministry spokesman Major General Shih Shun-wen (史順文) yesterday said that rumors that the Marine Raiders, a special operations forces under the US Marine Corps, working with the Republic of China Marine Corps lacked factual basis, calling on the media and others not to propagate false information.
The Republic of China Navy yesterday issued a statement, saying that scheduled exercises between Taiwan and the US are to commence normally, while declining to comment further on the issue.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
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