The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it has been keeping a close eye on Chinese military activities and monitored six Chinese military aircraft flying over a strategic waterway near Japan’s Okinawa Islands two days ago.
The ministry monitored Chinese bombers and fighter jets that flew over the Miyako Strait between the Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa on Friday last week, ministry spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said.
The Chinese aircraft were believed to be two Su-30 fighter jets, two H-6 bombers and two surveillance aircraft, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Saturday.
The flight was legal and did not infringe on Japanese territorial airspace, but the Japan Air Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter jets to conduct reconnaissance as Chinese aircraft passed the strait, a critical entryway into the Western Pacific, the report said.
The four Chinese bombers and surveillance airplanes flew northwest over the Pacific Ocean before traveling over the strait and heading toward the East China Sea, it said.
It was assumed that the four aircraft flew over the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines and circled around Taiwan, the report added.
The two Su-30 fighter jets passed the strait from the opposite direction and turned around to join the four other aircraft and return to the East China Sea, according to the report.
Chen yesterday said that the Taiwanese military has been closely monitoring the nation’s waters and airspace to ensure national security, without being provocative or escalating potential conflicts.
The military did not send fighter jets to patrol Taiwan’s airspace in response to the politically sensitive flight, but it asked airborne aircraft to conduct reconnaissance, Chen said, without specifying what aircraft were used.
The flight was part of a routine distant-sea exercise and was not targeted at any specific nation, Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke (申進科) said.
It was the second such flight since September, when Beijing dispatched fighters and bombers to the area as territorial disputes in the South and East China seas escalated.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary