Wu Shih-wen

Wu Shih-wen (born 24 July 1934) was the Minister of National Defense of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2002. He was a career military officer, joining the ROC Army Artillery first as a conscript gunner in 1952, then as a Fires Lieutenant in the Taiwanese Navy 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).