The military came under fire from legislators yesterday after it was revealed that dummy soldiers had been used to stand guard at an army base in Taoyuan County.
The storm of criticism came after Chinese-language media reported that an artillery unit had posted dummy soldiers at guard posts at the army’s Sixth Legion Artillery Command Headquarters, located at Tungshih Base in Taoyuan County’s Pingchen Township (平鎮), raising worries over a possible shortage of manpower.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said the military’s use of dummies to stand guard at a military base was “a joke” and asked whether the army would also send dummies if it had to fight a war.
Tsai said the morale of the military had suffered since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) came into office in May because his polices have focused on China.
In response, the Ministry of National Defense’s Joint Warfare Planning Department director, Hau Yi-chi (郝以知), said yesterday the dummies were part of “decoy tactics” used at the base.
“It is part and parcel of military tactics and it is nothing new. In addition to dummy guards, we also use mock tanks and mock camps to confuse enemies in case they are taking satellite pictures,” Hau said, adding that the military would continue to use dummy guards “irregularly,” albeit only at night.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said that if the military wants to use dummies, “it should at least use more realistic ones rather than something that can be instantly recognized as fake.”
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS