Responding to yesterday's election victory by DPP candidate Chen Shui-bian (
"According to Article 138 of the Constitution, the armed forces should be loyal to the country and protect the people. Article 36 stipulates the president is the supreme commander of the armed forces," Tang said.
"The armed forces should therefore abide by the Constitution and be loyal to the leader of the country. I hereby announce on behalf of the armed forces that the military will be loyal to the new supreme commander of the country," he said.
Taiwan's military was placed on alert before the vote, but officials said on Friday that they had detected no unusual moves by China to indicate a military response to the election was forthcoming.
Tang's pledge of loyalty to the president-elect was seen as prudent and a reassuring gesture since the mainlander-dominated military leadership does not agree with Chen's pro-independence stance.
It also follows remarks by Minister of National Defense Tang Fei (
Former defense minister Chiang Chung-ling (
He had added, however, that the military would support any president as long as he was popularly elected.
According to a local newspaper, Minister Tang told a KMT rally for Lien on Friday that if Chen was elected, he thought China would ratchet up tensions across the Taiwan Strait in a bid to force Chen to yield to its demands.
Su Chin-chiang (
"The cross-strait situation will not see any big change in one year. Beijing will try to watch political developments in Taiwan during the first year of Chen's presidency," Su said.
"Chen's pro-independence colors do arouse some doubt within the military, especially the veterans who retreated with the KMT government to Taiwan in 1949," he said.
"But the impact might not as big as expected, since the military has now stopped condemning the Taiwan independence movement in its political education courses for servicemen," he said.
"We might say the military has made itself ready for the change in political development," he added.
Su said he does not believe Chen will announce independence for Taiwan after he becomes president, but he added that it will take some time for Chen to win the confidence of servicemen.
Meanwhile, military spokes-man Major General Kung Fan-ding (孔繁定) explained why it was the chief of the general staff, rather than the minister, who declared the military's loyalty.
"According to the newly enforced National Defense Law, the chief of the general staff is the chief staff officer to the defense minister. But what General Tang announced today was just a repetition of what Minister Tang had said before the election," Kung said.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS