13 Facts About Yen Teh-fa

Yen Teh-fa is a Taiwanese politician and retired general of the ROC Army who has served as the minister of the Veterans Affairs Council since 2024.

Yen Teh-fa was previously the Minister of National Defense and the secretary-general of the National Security Council.

Yen Teh-fa was the chief of the general staff of the ROC armed forces from 30 January 2015 until 1 December 2016.

Yen Teh-fa was the vice minister for armaments of the National Defense Ministry from 9 August 2013 until 15 January 2014.

Yen Teh-fa left the post in January 2014, and was appointed the chief of the general staff of the Republic of China Armed Forces.

Yen Teh-fa retired in December 2016, and was succeeded by Chiu Kuo-cheng.

In May 2017, Yen Teh-fa returned to public service as secretary-general of the National Security Council.

Yen Teh-fa's term was extended in February 2020 due to the ROCAF UH-60M crash with high-rank officers including Chief of the General Staff, General Shen Yi-ming, deceased.

In February 2021, Yen Teh-fa was named a consultant to the National Security Council.

Yen Teh-fa formally joined the NSC on 23 February 2021.

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

Yen Teh-fa 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 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 Teh-fa disagreed, claiming that troops followed the "SOP" of the Martial Law to execute the orders, and had been court-martialed.