Retired military officers planning to attend the Whampoa Military Academy centennial celebrations in China could pose a national security risk to Taiwan, an official said yesterday.
Whampoa Military Academy was founded in 1924 by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in Guangzhou, China. Taiwanese and Chinese armed forces both lay claim to the institution’s lineage.
Taiwan and China are expected to hold rivaling centennial events later this month.
Photo: Taipei Times
Retired Taiwanese officers attending Beijng’s ceremony would be asked to get residency documents, driver’s licenses and bank accounts in China, the official said on condition of anonymity.
These veterans would be given cellphones with telecom subscriptions and predownloaded applications, they said.
China claimed these measures were intended to give the veterans the means to travel by air and high-speed rail, the official said.
This is a pretext, they said, adding that the bank accounts, devices and apps are aimed at enabling Chinese espionage as Taipei cannot monitor China’s financial institutions or telecom system, they said.
The Taiwanese veterans would give China the necessary information to register as Chinese nationals living in the “Taiwan area,” same as Hong Kong and Macau residents, the official said.
The request for identity documents is a bureaucratic maneuver aimed at upholding the narrative that Taiwan is a part of China, they said.
The retired officers’ itinerary — a product of the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee — would feature World War II monuments, a memorial for the Nanjing Massacre, and the academy’s former site, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
The selection of these sites was designed to build a narrative saying Taiwan and China’s militaries are the same entity, and Japan is the common enemy for the two sides across the Taiwan Strait, they said.
The Taiwanese officers attending China’s celebrations were people who took specialist courses at the academy and not Whampoa graduates, the source said, adding that none of them rose to general officer rank.
China said its Whampoa event is to draw more than 3,000 retired Taiwanese officers, but Taiwanese officials put the figure at fewer than 100.
More than 10,000 active and retired officers would attend Taiwan’s Whampoa event at the Military Academy in Kaohsiung, Veterans Affairs Council Minister Yen De-fa (嚴德發) said.
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
The first global hotel Keys Selection by the Michelin Guide includes four hotels in Taiwan, Michelin announced yesterday. All four received the “Michelin One Key,” indicating guests are to experience a “very special stay” at any of the locations as the establishments are “a true gem with personality. Service always goes the extra mile, and the hotel provides much more than others in its price range.” Of the four hotels, three are located in Taipei and one in Taichung. In Taipei, the One Key accolades were awarded to the Capella Taipei, Kimpton Da An Taipei and Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Capella Taipei was described by
Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) yesterday said that private-sector refiners are willing to stop buying Russian naphtha should the EU ask them to, after a group of non-governmental organizations, including the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), criticized the nation’s continued business with the country. While Taiwan joined the US and its Western allies in putting broad sanctions on Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, it did not explicitly ban imports of naphtha, a major hard-currency earner for Russia. While state-owned firms stopped importing Russian oil in 2023, there is no restriction on private companies to
President William Lai (賴清德) is expected to announce a new advanced “all-domain” air defense system to better defend against China when he gives his keynote national day speech today, four sources familiar with the matter said. Taiwan is ramping up defense spending and modernizing its armed forces, but faces a China that has a far larger military and is adding its own advanced new weapons such as stealth fighter jets, aircraft carriers and a huge array of missiles. Lai is expected to announce the air defense system dubbed “Taiwan Dome” in his speech this morning, one of the sources said. The system
RSS