The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) naming its recently completed destroyer Xining (西寧), using the same Chinese characters as the Taiwanese frigate Si Ning, might lead to confusion if the ships encounter each other on maneuvers, Taiwanese military observers said.
According to Chinese media affiliated with the PLA, the Xining is an indigenously developed Type 052D advanced guided-missile destroyer, with a displacement of 7,500 tonnes and low radar visibility.
The Republic of China (ROC) Navy “does not rule out” the possibility of the Si Ning encountering the Xining, a Ministry of National Defense official in Taipei said on condition of anonymity.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Although the Xining is assigned to the PLAN’s North Sea Fleet, it is a principal combat ship and is therefore likely to conduct transoceanic and expeditionary warfare training, including those conducted near Taiwanese waters, the official said.
The Si Ning is a Kang Ding-class frigate, with the pennant number DDG-124, and is based in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營), the official said.
The Xining is the second Chinese warship to bear that name, the official said, adding that its predecessor with pennant number DDG-108 was a first-generation guided-missile destroyer, commissioned in 1980 and decommissioned in 2013.
A source familiar with naval affairs said that Taiwanese and Chinese warships rarely encountered each other in the past because the two navies usually restricted their ship movements to fixed lanes.
However, the PLAN has in recent years been moving its ships off the established lanes, leading to increased chances of maritime encounters, the source said.
The Taiwanese navy is to follow international customs regulating those occurrences to avoid friction, the source said.
A situation involving ships with the same name appearing in the same area is likely to cause difficulties, another unnamed defense ministry official said on Sunday.
Because the Taiwanese and Chinese navies both use place names for their ships, four ships have the same names: Taiwan’s Si Ning and Kun Ming and China’s Xining and Kunming, the official said.
Taiwan’s six Kang Ding-class frigates were named after the ROC’s former Chinese provinces, and Beijing also intends to name its destroyers after its major provinces and cities, with up to 18 ships planned, the official said.
According to the Taiwanese navy’s naming conventions, ships belonging to Class I principle warships are named after place names or military figures of renown, with Class II patrol ships named after mountains and Class III after rivers, the official said.
However, in 2005, the Legislative Yuan’s National Defense Committee requested that the defense ministry name new warships “using Taiwanese place names or names that resonate with Taiwanese,” and the military has complied, the official said.
The Taiwanese navy named its post-2005 Keelung-class destroyers Keelung, Su Ao, Tso Ying and Ma Kong, the official said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique