Preceded by Tang Fei Name Wu Shih-wen Political party Kuomintang | Nationality Republic of China Succeeded by Tang Yao-ming | |
Born 24 July 1934 (age 89)
Taishan, Kwangtung ( 1934-07-24 ) | ||
Wu Shih-wen (Chinese: 伍世文; pinyin: Wu Shìwén) was the Minister of National Defense of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2002. He was a career military officer, joining the Taiwanese Navy first as a conscript sailor in 1951, then as an Artillery Lieutenant in the Taiwanese Army in 1955, later served as Superintendent of Naval Academy and Commander-in-chief of the Navy. He was considered to be a military and foreign policy hawk, who resisted military reforms and rapprochement with the People's Republic of China. During the Third Taiwan Straits Crisis he was suspected of ordering Amphibious Marines & Coastal Artillery units to stage live fire drills as a response to the PLA Navy's muscle flexing (and in defiance of the government's and the United States' wish for deescalation).