The Ministry of National Defense (MND) is considering making the Taiping Island (
According to the proposal, if Itu Abu became an attraction visited by international tourists, the chances of it being attacked would decrease. Taiwan would be able to take advantage of this "natural protection," instead of devoting extra manpower or budget to defend the island.
"The atolls of the Spratly Islands are all easy to take but difficult to defend," a staff member from the ministry's spokesman office said. "The ministry is currently working on several solutions to defend the Itu Abu more effectively, but at this time there has been no decision yet."
Taiwan currently occupies Itu Abu, but the islet has also attracted the notice of neighboring countries, including China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.
According to the latest edition of the Taiwan Year Book, there are 192 atolls in the region. Forty-eight of them are occupied by six countries, including Taiwan, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. Taiwan claims one of them, China eight, Vietnam 27, the Philippines nine, Malaysia three and Brunei one.
Vietnam has dispatched more than 2,000 soldiers to defend its claims, while China's army has assigned more than 600 soldiers to its atolls and the Philippines has 100 military personnel defending its islets.
The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (
According to the official, participants in the meetings -- all of whom were ministry staffers -- came up with several proposals to solve the problem peacefully, including making Itu Abu a tourist attraction and welcoming foreign tourists, resuming military defense of the island or simply withdrawing all defenses and giving the island up.
The official also said the idea of turning Itu Abu into a tourist attraction had been affirmed as a smart move by local military analysts, as the chances of a foreign country attacking a location full of foreign visitors would be significantly lower.
The official said that Itu Abu is difficult to defend because it is about 1,592km from Taiwan, and currently no air force aircraft are capable of flying directly to the island to help defend it if a military conflict were to take place. In the past, the military used to assign a platoon of marines to defend Itu Abu but these were withdrawn in 1999, and the Coast Guard Administration took over the job.
In addition, shipping supplies to the island by boat takes at least two days from Taiwan. Once near the islet, passengers and supplies must be transferred to smaller boats to land on the island, since there is no suitable harbor or airport on Itu Abu.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS