Ouyang Li-hsing (????), the vice president of state-run weapons developer National Chung-Shan Institute of Science & Technology (NCSIST), has died of a heart attack while on a trip in Pingtung County in southern Taiwan.
The 57-year-old Ouyang was not breathing when he was found by his aide in his hotel room in Hengchun Township at 7:20 a.m. Saturday, and the aide immediately called local police for help, according to an NCSIST statement.
When police arrived at the scene, they determined he had died, said Wang Chin-tsung (???), deputy director of the Hengchun Precinct of the Pingtung County Police Department.
After checking the surveillance video footage and surveying the hotel room, police found the windows to be closed and did not see any signs of a break-in or fighting nor did they find any wounds on Ouyang’s body, Wang said.
Hengchun health authorities later concluded that Ouyang died of a heart attack, and ruled out any possibility of foul play, the NCSIST statement said.
The NCSIST vice president had a history of heart disease and had previously had a stent placed in an artery to improve blood flow, police said, citing Ouyang’s family.
Ouyang was in the southern Taiwan township to attend an Indigenous harvest festival in Pingtung’s Manzhou Township on Saturday.
In its statement, the institute said it was deeply saddened by Ouyang’s passing and described him as being devoted to his work.
Ouyang, who held a Ph.D. in hydrodynamics from the University of Washington, assumed his post at the NCSIST at the beginning of this year and was in charge of the development of various types of missiles at the time of his death.
Before joining the NCSIST, Ouyang had held important posts in the military, including as deputy director of the Ministry of National Defense (MND)’s Armaments Bureau and as dean of National Defense University’s Management College, the institute said.
The NCSIST is Taiwan’s main research and development hub for domestically produced weapons.
It is responsible for the development, manufacture, and sales of defense technology and weapons and domestic and international cooperation in technology, information exchange, and promotion.
It has developed a wide range of weapons systems, such as the Tien Kung Air Defense Weapon System, the Tien Chien Missile System and the Hsiung Feng Anti-ship Missiles.
Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng (???) is chairman of the institute.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel