President Tsai Ing-wen (???) has called on Taiwanese to become more united to strengthen the country’s security at a ceremony held to promote 28 senior military officers, including Taiwan’s first female two-star general.
At Monday’s ceremony, held at Ministry of National Defense (MND) headquarters, Tsai thanked the officers for their tireless efforts, and urged them not to become complacent given the ongoing challenges facing the country, especially the expansion of authoritarianism.
“As we are becoming better prepared ourselves, the chance that the aggressor might want to take reckless action in invading us would be smaller,” she said.
“Taiwan will become strong and safer if its people become more united as one,” Tsai said.
Eight officers were promoted to the rank of two-star general, namely lieutenant general and admiral, and 20 were promoted to the rank of one-star general, namely major general and vice admiral.
One of the newly promoted two-star generals was Chen Yu-lin (???), director of the Army Command Headquarters’ Political Warfare Department, who was promoted from major general — a one-star post — to lieutenant general on Oct. 1.
Chen was the first woman to be given the rank of lieutenant general and the first female to lead a political warfare department in a Republic of China military command headquarters in the country’s history.
She has set a number of firsts in Taiwan’s armed forces during her career.
Chen was the first woman to be responsible for political warfare affairs at a defense command on an outlying island when she served under the Matsu Defense Command, and the first to head an Army corps’ political warfare division with the Sixth Army Corps.
She was also the first female director at the MND’s Political Warfare Cadres Academy and the first female deputy director of the MND’s Political Warfare Bureau.
In addition to Chen, there are currently three other female generals in Taiwan, all of whom hold the rank of major general (one-star general).
The promotions of senior military personnel in Taiwan used to be carried out twice a year but are now done at monthly events after the Legislature made a revision to the relevant law in May.
The conferral ceremony, however, is still being carried out twice a year, in June and December.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel