Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday said his order to the military to reinforce areas in the South China Sea controlled by Manila was to maintain the geopolitical balance and assured China no “offensive weapons” would be placed there.
He said the Philippines wanted peace and friendship with China, but his country needed to bolster what territory it had in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) because “everybody’s grabbing” islands and reefs in the disputed waterway. Taiwan also claims the islands.
The president set off alarm bells on Thursday last week when he said he had ordered troops to occupy uninhabited islets and shoals that the Philippines claims in the Spratly Islands.
Philippine defense and military officials later said plans were to upgrade existing facilities and not occupy new territories.
“I’d like to address myself to the Chinese government... I ordered the occupation of the 10 or nine islands that are just near our shores because there’s a heightening of geopolitical issues and eventually maybe a violent low intensity war over here,” he told a news conference yesterday.
He said the Philippines would not engage in any military buildup, but indicated the US would seek to do so.
Duterte puts the blame for tensions in the South China Sea on Washington, for not intervening to stop China building and arming artificial islands in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
“If they fight each other, we will be hit. Everybody knows, the United States will be stockpiling their weapons there, and, they said they will not,” he said. “I do not want to get involved in a war between nations. I have extended my hand and friendship to the US government.”
“For the information of China, we will not place there any offensive weapons, not even one gun,” he said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue
RSS