Tainan is cooperating with the central government to hold the nation’s first civil defense resilience exercises on Thursday next week to test the nation’s emergency response capabilities, the Tainan City Government said today.
President William Lai (賴清德) and Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) are expected to travel to Tainan to oversee the exercises, reports said.
The exercises are to take place from 9am to 2pm at Tainan Municipal Nan-Ning Senior High School, teh Anping Port Visitors’ Center and the square across from the Tainan Yuping Post Office, the city government said.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan City Government
This initiative was launched by the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee, which was established by the Presidential Office in June last year to enhance preparedness for large-scale disasters and the threats posed by authoritarian expansion, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said.
The drills would simulate disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis or damage to critical infrastructure, testing the effectiveness of on-site disaster responses, Huang said.
The exercises are a collaboration between central and local governments, incorporating civilian participation, he said.
The goal is to strengthen national defense, public welfare, disaster prevention and democratic resilience, he added.
The committee conducted a tabletop exercise with relevant central government agencies and the Tainan City Government on Dec. 26 last year, Tainan Deputy Mayor Yeh Tse-shan (葉澤山) said.
It was decided then that Tainan would hold the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Field Exercises on Thursday next week, Yeh said.
Following the exercises, Tainan is to host the third meeting of the committee and a follow-up news conference, embodying Lai’s vision of an “action-oriented committee,” he said.
The exercises would verify disaster response capabilities through small-scale, on-site drills, Tainan City Government Secretary-General Fang Chin-cheng (方進呈) said.
They would test the ability of central and local governments to conduct large-scale evacuations, shelter and resettlement operations, and expand emergent medical facilities, Fang said.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS