Military authorities yesterday denied a report by local media that a Chinese submarine had entered Taiwan’s territorial waters and retreated after Taiwanese vessels attempted to locate it.
The Chinese-language United Evening News reported yesterday that the incident occurred on Wednesday morning when helicopters detected the presence of a submarine off the military port in Zuoying (左營), Kaohsiung City, during an exercise.
The newspaper said the sub left Taiwanese waters after the Taiwanese Navy asked it to identify itself but received no response and launched a search. It added that the submarine came within 24 nautical miles (44.4km) of the port.
The report came one day after US President Barack Obama approved a US$6.4 billion sale of Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters, mine-hunting ships and other weaponry to Taiwan.
Initially, Wen Chen-kuo (聞振國), spokesman for the Naval Fleet Command Headquarters in Zuoying, declined to comment when asked by the media for comment on the report.
Later in the day, Director of the Naval Logistics Agency’s Warfare Department Hsia Teh-yu (夏德玉) was quoted by the Central News Agency as denying the report.
He said there was indeed an exercise on Wednesday during which something was detected underwater. It was later determined that it was not a submarine, he said.
If it had been a submarine, Hsia said the Navy would have immediately launched measures to force it to the surface or to block it.
Hsia said several factors could lead to detection of abnormal underwater movement, such as underwater terrain features, sunken ships or a large school of fish.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AP
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