China warned Somali pirates yesterday it was prepared to use force when its navy ships arrive in the Gulf of Aden to combat a wave of piracy that has disrupted international shipping.
Two Chinese destroyers and a supply ship set sail on Friday — the first time in recent history that the country has deployed ships on a potential combat mission well beyond its territorial waters.
“[If] our naval vessels are ambushed by pirate ships we will resolutely fight back to protect our own safety,” Rear Admiral Xiao Xinnian (蕭新年) said in a briefing to reporters. “If the act of piracy is already under way and the pirates are already robbing other civilian vessels, we will suppress their acts, provided we have the capability and conditions to do so.”
Xiao, who also serves as navy deputy chief of staff, said the Chinese ships would mainly be charged with protecting the nation’s commercial vessels as well as the ships of international organizations such as the UN World Food Program.
About 100 ships — seven of them Chinese — have been attacked by Somali pirates since the beginning of the year. At least one Chinese vessel is believed to still be in the hands of the attackers.
The admiral said Chinese war ships would investigate any suspect pirate vessels and demand that they show their documents and certificates.
The ships would mainly stay in international waters, but could enter Somali territory if the situation warranted it, he added.
The UN Security Council last week gave nations a one-year mandate to act inside lawless Somalia to stop the rampant piracy in the Gulf of Aden, part of the Suez Canal route from Europe to Asia.
Some companies are now sailing their vessels around Africa, a longer and thus more expensive route, to avoid the increasingly brazen pirate attacks — including the seizure of a Saudi supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of oil.
Huang Xueping (黃雪平), a spokesman for China’s ministry of national defense, said China would cooperate with other nations fighting pirates under UN leadership.
“We maintain that the leading and coordinating role of the United Nations should be strengthened and relevant parties should earnestly abide by international law and the concerned UN Security Council resolutions,” he said.
Besides being equipped with guided missiles and artillery, the fleet of three Chinese ships will also carry two helicopters and a detail of special forces, Xiao said.
“This mission will demonstrate the resolve and the capability of the Chinese navy to deal with multiple security threats and diversified military tasks,” he said.
Ma Luping (馬魯平), director of China’s naval operations, said the flotilla was facing up to 30 organized groups of as many as 1,000 pirates.
China would also be willing to provide rescue and aid services to Taiwan-owned ships as long as they registered with the Chinese government, Ma said.
“Currently we do not see any insurmountable obstacles in patrolling these areas,” Ma said.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS