President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday inspected the fourth day of the first female voluntary reservist training program at a military camp in Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅), expressing hope that more retired female military personnel would attend reservist training to demonstrate the nation’s resolve to defend itself.
The president, accompanied by National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) and Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正), watched a shooting exercise and listened to a briefing.
Tsai also handed out cash rewards to the reservists who voluntarily signed up for a refresher program.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Fourteen female volunteer reservists enrolled in the refresher program for women that started on Monday at a “strategic location” in Taoyuan’s Bade District (八德).
The reservists have since undergone a chemical warfare simulation, and completed a 5km march and target training.
Tsai said that some of the reservists took time off work to participate in the training, while others left their children at home, describing these as concrete actions to protect the country.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
The purpose of reservist training programs is to familiarize trainees with a range of wartime scenarios, and practice the military principle of being able to “mobilize and be combat-ready anytime, anywhere,” she said.
Mobilization not only improves the reserve forces, but also logistical work, Tsai said.
Tsai said the Ministry of National Defense must make adjustments and improvements to female reserve programs, expressing hope that more retired female members of the armed forces would join the programs.
“Taiwan is on the front line defending democracy, and [Taiwanese] regardless of gender must be united and demonstrate to the world our resolve to defend our country,” Tsai said.
She thanked the reservists who took part in the training and their families, saying that she hopes that when the program ends today, they would have each learned something.
Taiwan’s dual-track reservist training program consists of a five to seven-day program and a 14-day program, with 96,000 reservists needed for the first, and trainees for the second one to be raised from 15,000 to 22,000 this year.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
RSS