Taiwan’s highest military is dead: Chief of Staff Shen Yi Ming died on the way to a troop visit when the helicopter apparently tried to make an emergency landing with him on board and then crashed.
Taiwan’s chief of staff, Shen Yi Ming, died on the way to a troop visit in a helicopter accident. Seven other military personnel also died. Five passengers survived and were taken to hospitals, the Ministry of Defense said.

Air Force General Shen, 62, was responsible for defending the Republic of the Island against China. He was on the way to a routine troop visit to eastern Taiwan, it said. According to this, 13 people were on board the UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter.

The minister spoke of an emergency landing and announced an investigation to clarify the cause. The disaster happened about half an hour after the start in a mountainous region near the capital Taipei, it was said.

The fatal crash occurred just a few days before the Taiwanese presidential election. President Tsai Ing-wen cancelled all campaign events for the next three days. As commander-in-chief, she wanted to work with her cabinet to investigate the accident, her office said.

Beijing regards Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China, although it has never been part of it. China repeatedly threatens to annex Taiwan with military force. The dispute over the status of the island nation dates back to the civil war in China when Kuomintang’s Chinese forces fled to Taiwan after their defeat against the Mao communists in 1949.

Taiwan was given over to the then “Republic of China” by the Japanese in 1945. In 1946 the second civil war between nationalists and communists broke out on the mainland – in 1949 the People’s Republic of China was founded, and the government of the Republic of China fled to Taiwan. It remained there.

The Republic of China was a member of the United Nations until the end of 1971 when the People’s Republic became a member of the United Nations – Taipei had to give up its seat, Beijing began to implement the one-China policy. In contrast to the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan has been experiencing democratic development since 1987.