Army Commander General Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) has been appointed the new chief of the general staff, replacing General Yen Teh-fa (嚴德發), who is to retire on Thursday next week, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
Lieutenant General Wang Shin-lung (王信龍), deputy chief of the general staff, has been named to succeed Chiu as army commander.
Chiu and Wang’s appointments are to take effect on Thursday next week, the ministry said.
The announcement came a day after the Presidential Office and the ministry declined to comment on a report in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that Chiu had been selected for the top job.
The choice of Chiu is not without controversy, as it breaks with the tradition of having the chief of the general staff rotate between the army, navy and air force.
In addition, Chiu, 63, would have to resign in May next year when he reaches the mandatory retirement age, which would make him the shortest-serving chief of the general staff in the nation’s history, a military source said.
Chiu has served as army commander since January last year. He previously served as deputy minister of national defense, National Defense Academy president and Reserve Command commander.
Wang, 56, was born in Hualien and graduated from the nation’s military academy. He has served as administrative deputy minister of national defense and deputy chief of the general staff, and led several relief operations after natural disasters.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
‘NEW NORMAL’: A Japanese official said the drills show that the PLA can carry out large maneuvers without announcement, ‘leaving all of us struggling to respond’ Beijing’s recent naval exercises have left Taiwan and the US “struggling” for a response as the two nations drew different conclusions about the implications of the Chinese military drills, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Sunday. Taiwan has been bracing for China to hold military drills to retaliate against President William Lai’s (賴清德) diplomatic visits abroad, the outlet said, referring to Lai’s Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 tour to Taiwan’s three South Pacific allies, which included stopovers in Hawaii and Guam. Beijing announced partial air traffic restrictions across seven time zones along its coast from Shanghai to Hong Kong over two days. Yet,
CONNECTED: A survey of students from third grade to university seniors showed that 80% had cellphones, spending on average 37.27 hours per week on them Line users in Taiwan made an average of 100 million voice or video calls each day this year, while “like/thumbs up” was the most frequently used emoji in reaction to a message on the service, the Tokyo-based operator of the messaging app said yesterday. The app’s ability to adjust the quality of video and voice calls helps contribute to its frequent use, LY Corp said in a statement. As of Nov. 30, Line users in Taiwan spent an average of about one hour per day on the app, often checking it in the morning for messages that might have come through overnight,
RSS