Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday said that the Coast Guard Administration has sent two vessels to patrol the nation's exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea.
"The ships are in the East China Sea to patrol and guard our fishing boats, not to emphasize our sovereign rights," Hsieh said at the legislature yesterday.
One legislator asked Hsieh if he would personally travel to the contested Tiaoyutai islets to reinforce the nation's claim to them.
PHOTO: HUANG MING-SHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
"Taiwan should assert that the Tiaoyutai islet cluster is its territory. But to avoid international controversy, I wouldn't go to Tiaoyutai myself to stress our sovereignty over the island," he said.
Two coast guard ships, the 1,800-tonne Ho Hsing and the 800-tonne Mou Hsing, departed Keelung for the island chains on Thursday.
The coast guard yesterday said the mission was a routine patrol.
Coast Guard Administration Deputy Director Yu Chien-tzu (
He said that from February 2003 to last month, coast guard ships have patrolled the East China Sea 102 times, the South China Sea 131 times, and the waters east of Taiwan 35 times.
To prevent Taiwan's fishing fleets from being harassed by foreign naval and other vessels, the coast guard earlier this week proposed that bases be established in the Dongsha Islands, the Pratas Islands and Pengchiayu islet. The proposal requires Cabinet approval.
Meanwhile, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun yesterday said the Japanese government would consider Beijing's suggestion that the two countries jointly search for oil resources in the contested oilfields of the East China Sea.
Some of the oilfields lie within Taiwan's exclusive economic zone.
A Chinese-language newspaper yesterday said the coast guard vessels were gathering information about Chinese and Japanese activity in the contested area.
The paper also said Beijing had recently permitted a "foreign company" to explore for oil in an area close to the Tiaoyutai islets, and that the ships would also observe its activities.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
RSS