The nation would find it difficult to cope with simultaneous disasters similar to the quake and tsunami that struck Japan last month, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday.
“Taiwan is susceptible to many kinds of natural disasters. If they were to occur at the same time, it would be very hard for us to handle them,” he said.
Ma made the comments while observing a drill in Pingtung County simulating a tsunami hitting a nuclear plant, as happened at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility.
The scenario for the exercise — the largest in the south since 2009, when the area was ravaged by disastrous floods — also included massive inundation sparked by a powerful typhoon, local government officials said.
Pingtung County Commissioner Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻) pointed out the danger posed to Taiwan by tsunamis.
“As of now, neither the local nor the central government has experience in protection against tsunamis,” Tsao said.
“Should a tsunami strike, the damage it could bring to a nuclear power plant would be hard to estimate,” he said.
The Taiwanese government released a report last week warning that if a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck the Manila Trench, a geologic fault west of the Philippines, it could generate a tsunami that would reach southern Taiwan.
Taiwan has faced pressure to halt operations at three nuclear power plants and stop the construction of a fourth after the massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, crippling a nuclear plant.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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