President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday inspected three military units responsible for monitoring Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) movements around Taiwan and thanked them for their service in the wake of Chinese military drills launched earlier this month following a visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The president inspected the air force’s No. 6 Radar Squadron, the navy’s 3rd Hai Feng Shore-based Anti-ship Missile Squadron and the air force’s Taipei Communication Squadron — all three based in New Taipei City — as the nation marked 64 years since the start of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis on Aug. 23, 1958.
In her address, Tsai expressed the nation’s gratitude to the units, which she said provide “indispensable” defense in the face of a potential Chinese invasion, as they are responsible for detecting PLA communications and tracking its warships and planes.
She thanked military personnel for their service and for remaining calm while carrying out their duties.
“No threat of any kind could shake the resolve of Taiwanese to defend their nation,” she added.
Nine years after the Republic of China (ROC) government relocated from China to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War, communist forces launched an attack on Kinmen, starting the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.
Over the next 44 days, 475,000 artillery shells were fired at Kinmen in an attempt to capture it, but ROC forces resisted the bombardment.
Government data show that 439 military personnel were killed and 1,911 injured in the bombardment. In addition, 80 civilians lost their lives and 221 were injured.
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