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.
The chief mechanic in an air force unit from which an F-16 and its pilot went missing last week died on Sunday evening in what might have been a suicide, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The ministry in a statement confirmed media reports that the mechanic, surnamed Huang (黃), “hurt himself” at a military barracks. Huang was taken to Hualien Armed Forces General Hospital after he was found unresponsive in the barracks, but doctors could not revive him, the ministry said. Huang served in the 26th Tactical Fighter Group of the 5th Tactical Fighter Wing, the same unit as the missing
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) last night said that it had no comment about reports that a senior US Navy officer had arrived in Taipei for a visit. Several media outlets reported that Rear Admiral Michael Studeman, director of intelligence of the US Indo-Pacific Command, arrived at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) on a special charter flight at about 7pm. The schedule of a “senior US official” in Taiwan would not be made public, the ministry said in a news release, without confirming the visit or the official’s identity. Interactions and exchanges between Taiwan and the US are common, and visits
NON-TYPICAL: Apart from Atsani, storms in autumn missed Taiwan, rainfall has been lower and average temperatures have been higher, a CWB forecaster said The current water shortage is expected to worsen in the next few months, with the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday forecasting a colder, dryer winter than normal. With winter starting next week, the bureau at a media briefing outlined the expected conditions through February and reviewed autumn’s significant weather events. Weather Forecast Center director Lu Kuo-cheng (呂國臣) said that autumn this year had three major characteristics: First, 13 tropical storms and typhoons formed from September to this month, up from 11 in the same period last year, Lu said. Apart from Atsani, for which sea and land alerts were issued in Taiwan, the tropical
The US’ inclusion of Taiwan in its Indo-Pacific Strategy is geared toward weakening Beijing’s influence in Southeast Asia, as well as providing a Blue Dot Network to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a senior Executive Yuan member said yesterday. Taiwan and the US would be seeking further collaboration on infrastructure construction and energy, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The US and Taiwan signed a memorandum of understanding on the Framework to Strengthen Infrastructure, Finance and Market Cooperation on Sept. 17, which would see the Ministry of Finance and the US Department of the Treasury establishing respective task
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