A military aircraft is to deliver meat to soldiers on Lienchiang County’s Siju (西莒) islet to relieve a month-long shortage, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said yesterday.
Chiu apologized for the lack of meat for the soldiers, which he said was due to the breakdown of a commercial boat that usually delivers meat to the islet, near China’s southeastern coast.
An AC-130 transport aircraft loaded with food supplies was yesterday to leave for Siju, he said, adding that he would ensure that a similar incident does not happen again.
Photo: screen grab from Chen Hung-ren’s Facebook page
Chiu addressed the issue after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Lienchiang County chapter director Lii Wen (李問) on Sunday said that the private supply boat had not been to Siju for 21 days.
That same day, a series of photographs began circulating on social media showing complaints written on the sand at a beach purportedly on Siju and reportedly by soldiers saying that they had to eat canned food because they had no fresh supplies.
The Matsu Defense Command on Sunday confirmed that the ship that delivers the meat had been out of service for a while, and that recent deliveries had been affected by weather.
A two-day supply of meat was delivered by boat yesterday morning, and the military transport plane was to carry 5.2 tonnes of frozen meat to the islet later in the day, the defense command said.
The Matsu Defense Command is in charge of the county’s Nangang (南竿) and Beigang (北竿) townships, as well as Siju, Dongju (東莒), Dongyin (東引) and other small isles.
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