June, 1991 Taiwan takes delivery of four German-made minesweepers, purchased as "multi-purpose coastal boats" for the state-run Chinese Petroleum Corporation.
Aug, 1991 Taiwan signs Lafayette frigate deal with France.
April, 1993 The Central Trust of Taiwan signs, on behalf of the navy, a deal with an Italian company for a survey ship.
May, 1993 Navy General Headquarters' weapons procurement office is inaugurated, with Captain Yin as its chief executive. Yin was scheduled for promotion to rear admiral at the beginning of the following year.
Sept, 1933 Captain Yin visits France in connection with the Lafayette frigate deal, accompanied by procurement office colleague Captain Kuo Li-heng (
Nov, 1993 Letter of accusation against Yin, Kuo and many other naval officers is sent to the Presidential Office. It accuses Yin of receiving NT$5 million in bribes from an arms broker mediating the navy's purchase of a survey ship from an Italian company.
Dec 8, 1993 Yin takes action to fight the allegations. He visits, at night, three key people involved in the minesweeper, frigate and survey ship deals and secretly records conversations with them. The three are a military official and two former naval officials who became arms brokers after retirement. Yin is accompanied by Kuo on two of the visits.
Dec 9, 1993 Yin goes missing at around 8:50am after going to meet somebody for breakfast near Navy General Headquarters in Taipei's suburban Tachih district.
Dec 10, 1993 Yin's body is found off Suao (
Dec 11, 1993 The first of two cassette tapes recording conversations between Yin and the three key arms purchasers is recovered. It is later, suspiciously, demagnetized. Navy investigators, who obtained access to the tapes before anybody else, include Rear Admiral Liu Chin-an (劉錦安), currently director of the Ministry of National Defense's Judge Advocates Bureau, Rear Admiral Li Kun-tsai (李昆材), then director of Navy General Headquarters' weapons procurement office, and several others.
Dec 15, 1993 The murder is reported by the press despite a gagging order imposed by the military.
Dec 16, 1993 Yin's colleague, Kuo, is taken into custody for suspected links to the murder.
Dec 18, 1993 An autopsy by Taiwan's top coroner, Yang Jih-sung (楊日松), finds evidence that Yin might have been murdered.
Dec 20, 1993 Andrew Wang (
Jan 1, 1994 Lawmaker Chu Kao-cheng (
Jan 21, 1994 Shan Yi-chen (單亦誠), an arms broker who had tried to mediate Taiwan's purchase of minesweepers from Germany, flees the country amid suspicions of his involvement in the Yin murder. Shan was alleged to have bribed Kuo Li-heng with NT$2.5 million in an attempt to win a contract for parts provision for the German-made mine sweepers.
Feb. 14, 1994 Tu, the German arms agent, meets in Singapore with members of a task force investigating the Yin murder. Tu denies any connection with or knowledge of the murder.
March 18, 1994 Then lawmaker Chen Shui-bian (
April 19, 1994 Chen accuses navy Captain Chen Kuo-hsiang (
Oct 1994 Kuo Li-heng is sentenced to life for leaking military secrets and taking NT$12 million in bribes from arms brokers.
May, 1995 Ex-navy Deputy Commander-in-Chief Cheng Li-cheng (
Oct 1996 Commission-taking scandal surrounding the Lafayette frigate deal between Taiwan and France is exposed by the French media.
Nov 1996 Yang I-li (
March, 1997 Yin's widow, Li Mei-kuei (
March, 1998 Yin's younger brother, Yin Ching-luan (尹清楓), accuses Admiral Liu Ho-chien (劉和謙), who had been chief of the general staff at the time of the murder, of behind-the-scenes involvement in the Yin murder.
July 3, 2000 Arms broker Shan Yi-chen (
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
CRITICAL MOVE: TSMC’s plan to invest another US$100 billion in US chipmaking would boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, the premier said The government would ensure that the most advanced chipmaking technology stays in Taiwan while assisting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in investing overseas, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The statement follows a joint announcement by the world’s largest contract chipmaker and US President Donald Trump on Monday that TSMC would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next four years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, which would include construction of three new chip fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The government knew about the deal in advance and would assist, Presidential
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