China held multiple military exercises during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) tenure, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) said yesterday, after Ma’s office implied that Beijing conducted no drills during the former president’s tenure.
On Wednesday, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation chief executive Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) slammed the DPP government’s handling of Beijing by asking reporters: “What military exercises were there during the Ma administration?”
In response, Lin in a Facebook post said that Ma’s office had “lied to us with a straight face” by implying China had friendlier intentions for Taiwan during Ma’s time in office.
Photo: Greg Baker, AFP
Counting only the officially acknowledged ones, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) held five major military exercises in 2014, she said.
These were the Jin Dun Long Pan (金盾龍盤), Yun Hai (雲海) and Kua Yue (跨越) drills, the Russo-Chinese Joint Sea exercise and that year’s iteration of the annual Joint Operation exercise, Lin said.
In 2015, then-president Ma told the BBC that he was displeased with a PLA military exercise featuring an assault on an apparent mock-up of the Presidential Office, she said.
“Pan-blue and white lawmakers have repeatedly obstructed Taiwan’s national security-related bills in the legislature,” she said, referring to the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party. “The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is rushing to pledge loyalty to China.”
Later yesterday, Hsiao defended his comments in a BCC News radio program, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had told Ma during their 2015 summit in Singapore that the PLA drills were not intended to target Taiwan.
Lin said the public should not lend credence to denials from Xi or Ma’s office, as one of the Chinese military exercises demonstrably simulated the decapitation of Taiwan’s leadership headed by Ma.
DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said dangling get-rich-fast schemes before their marks is a scammer tactic and the KMT has fallen for it.
The KMT’s attempt to rationalize Chinese aggression showed Ma and people like him put their faith in Xi and not Taiwan, he added.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
RSS