The Second Special Police Corps of the National Police Agency is to be expanded and trained to protect the nation’s key infrastructure, not to engage in military action, Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said yesterday.
There had been reports that the Executive Yuan was planning to expand the size of the Second Special Police Corps and have 5,500 police officers trained in anti-terrorism capabilities and to have the capability of switching to combat mode during wartime.
The officers would be capable of guarding the nation’s key infrastructure, the reports said.
Photo: Chen Kuan-pei, Taipei Times
They would be trained by military personnel dispatched from the Ministry of National Defense to combat and shoot in confined spaces, and use machine guns and grenades, the reports said.
“I made it very clear at the meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee [on Monday] that police would not engage in any military action, so people should not misinterpret the significance of such a project,” Lin said.
“Police officers are to undergo anti-infiltration and counterassault training to enhance their ability to protect Taiwan’s key infrastructure, which is absolutely necessary,” he said. “The task would be different from capturing criminals. It is a new problem and threat we are facing, and we need to address it.”
Lin dismissed the reports saying that key infrastructure is now guarded by conscripts and said that the project would not lead to confusion in the chain of command during wartime.
“If it is wartime, a wartime system would be enforced, so there is no problem at all,” he said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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