Citing concerns over severe breaches of national security, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) has strongly opposed the Ministry of Transportation and Communication’s (MOTC) approval of applications from Chinese ships to moor off the coast of Taiwan today to assist with the installation of offshore wind turbines.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said on Friday that she invited National Security Bureau Director-General Lee Hsiang-chou (李翔宙) and Minister of National Defense Yen Ming (嚴明) to explain how the installation could harm national security.
Lee was quoted by Kuan as saying that the Chinese lifting ship the Huadian 1001 must be towed into a dry dock in Taichung Harbor for closer inspection, adding that the ship must take the straightest possible route from Shanghai to Taichung Harbor to minimize risk to national security.
Yen was quoted by Kuan as saying that the ships “must not” be allowed access to “internal waters.”
In its dicussion with the bureau held later that afternoon, the defense ministry was adamant in its position that the Chinese ships “must not” be allowed access to “internal waters,” Kuan quoted MND Deputy Minister Kao Tien-chung (高天忠) as telling her, adding that information about tidal speeds, tidal direction, wave heights, tidal periods, water temperatures, seasalinity and density, and seabed materials could all be revealed.
As Fuhai Wind Farm Corp (福海風電公司) has applied to use Chinese ships to set up 30 platforms at different depths, Kao was quoted by Kuan as saying that Chinese ships would be able to return to China with complete and even three-dimensional hydrological information, adding that it was quite possible that the ships could also capture the routes of other vessels passing through the area.
Kao said the defense ministry strongly suggested that the MOTC deny the Huadian 1001 entry, adding that if the ship cannot be substituted, it would not be allowed to leave port before it is fully inspected by officials and after the results of the sweep were confirmed by officials from both the Maritime and Port Bureau and the defense ministry.
Kuan said that the Chinese towboat the Xigang No. 36, tasked with delivering the Huadian 1001, should be denied berthing rights in Taichung Harbor, adding that its presence could potentially allow it to record the sonar patterns of passing ships and establish a comprehensive record of ships using the harbor.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS