Yen Teh-fa (; born 14 November 1952) is a

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan (Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, r ...

politician and retired

general A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

of the

Republic of China Army The Republic of China Army (ROCA), previously known as the Chinese Nationalist Army or Nationalist Revolutionary Army and unofficially as the Taiwanese Army, is the largest branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces. An estimated 80% of th ...

. His ancestral home was in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

. He was previously the Minister of National Defense and the secretary-general of the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

. He was the chief of the general staff of the Republic of China Armed Forces from 30 January 2015 until 1 December 2016. He was the vice minister for armaments of the National Defense Ministry (MND) from 9 August 2013 until 15 January 2014.

Education

Yen graduated from the

Republic of China Military Academy The Republic of China Military Academy () is the service academy for the army of the Republic of China, located in Fengshan District, Kaohsiung. Previously known as the the military academy produced commanders who fought in many of China ...

in 1975 and later attended the War College of the

National Defense University The National Defense University (NDU) is an institution of higher education funded by the United States Department of Defense, intended to facilitate high-level education, training, and professional development of national security leaders. As ...

Military career

In August 2009, Yen joined the disaster relief efforts under the 8th Army Corps following the Typhoon Morakot. In August 2013, Yen was named the vice minister of defense for armaments.Alt URL
/ref> He left the post in January 2014, and was appointed the chief of the general staff of the Republic of China Armed Forces. Yen retired in December 2016, and was succeeded by Chiu Kuo-cheng. In May 2017, Yen returned to public service as secretary-general of the

. In February 2018, he was named minister of national defense in place of

Feng Shih-kuan Feng Shih-kuan (; born 25 November 1945) is a Taiwanese politician. He served in the Republic of China Air Force from 1967 to 2006, retiring with the rank of General before assuming the post of Minister of National Defense in 2016. Feng steppe ...

. His term was extended in February 2020 due to the ROCAF UH-60M crash with high-rank officers including

Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( United States) * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Af ...

, General Shen Yi-ming, deceased. In February 2021, Yen was named a consultant to the

. He formally joined the NSC on 23 February 2021.

Legacy

On 6 January 2018, Yen criticized the PRC's unilateral decision to activate the north-bound

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

of M503 Flight Route as unilaterally changing the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and severely impacting the peace and stability in the East Asian region. On 29 March 2018, a lady guest to a military base posted a

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inside the classified

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cabin to

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, which exposed the . Further investigation on the host

helicopter pilot A helicopter pilot manipulates the helicopter flight controls to achieve and maintain controlled aerodynamic flight. Changes to the aircraft flight control system transmit mechanically to the rotor, producing aerodynamic effects on the rotor bla ...

Lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

Lau, revealed multiple incidents of corruption and

security breach Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social ...

es associated with the 601 Brigade of the , which led to 20 officers being either prosecuted or sanctioned. Yen became the first Chief of the General Staff receiving a demerit in the ROC Armed Forces history. On 3 October 2018, MP Freddy Lim, former Director of the Amnesty International Taiwan, inquired in a hearing session of the Foreign and National Defense Committee in the

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel v ...

for re-investigation on the Lieyu massacre files in the military archive to render an apology to the victims' families through the Vietnamese Representative Office, but Minister Yen disagreed, claiming that troops followed the " SOP" of the

Martial Law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Martia ...

to execute the orders, and had been

court-martial A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...

ed. Later, the MND followed up to state that ''"It has been too difficult to identify the deceased due to the long time, hence (the case) can not be processed further"''. This served as the sole statement of the government of the Republic of China on the case since martial law was lifted in 1987.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yen, Teh-fa 1952 births Living people Republic of China Army generals Taiwanese Ministers of National Defense