Taiwan's newly established Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has plans to establish a "three-dimensional" monitoring capability and an island-wide surveillance system as one of its future functions, said the new director Wang Chun (王郡).
"The three-dimensional monitoring capability is to be developed through the build-up of on-the-shore, coastal, ocean-going and air forces. We hope to reach the goals in a given time, but we know that we are still in the infancy stage compared to coast guard forces of advanced countries," Wang said.
Wang said the coast guard also has ambitious plans to have three 5,000-tonne large-sized vessels built. The 5,000-tonne ship will dwarf any warship presently in service in the navy.
So far, the biggest ships operational in the coast guard are eight 1,900-tonne vessels handed over from the customs authorities.
"We have not made a final decision on whether to go ahead with the 5,000-tonne ship building plan. We have to consider many factors, especially the cost," Wang said.
Officials with the CGA said the 5,000-tonne ships would be equipped with helicopters, which would significantly upgrade the search and rescue capability of the coast guard.
The ship building plan is just one part of Wang's project to develop a three-dimensional monitoring system, which could cover areas from the coast to the sea, and from the ground to the air.
Wang said the purpose of the "three dimensional" approach was to carry out missions from the coast to the high seas.
"Our aim is to effectively enforce law within our 200 nautical mile economic zone. We hope to achieve it, though it is not going to be an easy job," Wang said.
In addition to the upgrade in the coast guard's monitoring capability, Wang said another priority was to establish a surveillance network around the island using high-tech equipment as well as personnel networking.
"Taiwan has a coastline of 1,500km. We do not expect our surveillance systems to cover every spot along the coast. We will build it selectively on spots prone to smuggling activities," Wang said.
Officials with the CGA said the surveillance system, comprised of radar, infrared sensors, sonar, as well as image scanning equipment, costs around NT$20 million for every kilometer. The total cost will run as high as NT$160 billion if the system is to comprehensively cover the coastline.
Because of budgetary constraints, Wang said the CGA will look to civilians for assistance in establishing a toll-free hotline to report unusual sightings off or along the coast.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification