More than 20 retired generals last month traveled to China to meet with their former Chinese counterparts and current government officials, despite the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and the Vocational Assistance Commission for Retired Service’s efforts to dissuade them from taking the trip, military sources said.
Generals Cheng Ting-chung (陳廷寵) and Li Chen-lin (李楨林), and former commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Army Huang Hsing-chiang (黃幸強) led the group to attend the sixth edition of a cross-strait retired generals festival in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, the sources said.
The festival is part of a series of events marking the 90th anniversary of the Whampoa Military Academy (黃埔軍校), the Republic of China Military Academy’s predecessor.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The academy was established in 1924 in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. It produced many elite military officers who fought in the eight-year Second Sino-Japanese War.
Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) re-established the academy in Greater Kaohsiung’s Fengshan District (鳳山) after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government retreated to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War.
Its alumni include former Chinese vice premier Lin Biao (林彪) and former Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來).
Photo: Lo Tien-pin, Taipei Times
Anonymous military officials said that at the festival last month, the retired generals discussed with their Chinese counterparts issues concerning a cross-strait military confidence-building mechanism.
During the talks, some members of the Taiwanese delegation said that only after such a mechanism is establish will both sides have the space in which to conduct political negotiations and perhaps sign political agreements.
The sources said that the ministry and the commission tried several times to persuade the generals to not take the trip so as to avoid making pro-unification implications.
While the groups that received the Taiwanese delegation brand themselves as civic organizations, they are supported by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and China’s United Front Work Department, the sources said.
In related developments, the ministry said it is to mark the 90th anniversary of the Whampoa Military Academy with a series of events this month and next month.
As part of the celebrations, the Republic of China Military Academy is to open its campus to the public on Friday, while the Thunder Tiger Aerobatics Team and the army’s Airborne Brigade Sky Diving Team will perform a show, the ministry said.
In addition, advanced weapon systems, including the Thunderbolt-2000 RT/LT-2000 and PAC-3 launcher system, are to be displayed at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall’s Liberty Square in Taipei on June 7, while an exhibition of historical relics and documents from the Whampoa Military Academy will be held at the Military Historical Relic Museum in Taipei on June 13, it added.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS