The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has rejected a plan by the Ministry of National Defense to deploy military weapons systems on Taiping Island (太平島), reports said yesterday.
The Chinese-language United Daily News reported that following a recent visit to the island by several senior military officials, the ministry had proposed providing the coast guard with some weapons systems free of charge.
Among the military items proposed for deployment were M41A3 Walker Bulldog light tanks, 40mm automatic guns and 120 mortars.
Photo: Chang Hsuan-che, Taipei Times
The coast guard has been stationed on Taiping Island since the marines were pulled out in 1999.
The proposed weapons would have replaced outdated guns and mortars left behind by the marines when they left, some of which have become obsolete, the report said.
However, the coast guard turned down the offer, the report said, claiming the weapons to be provided by the military were themselves too old and that it could not afford the maintenance costs of keeping them in service.
Responding to the article, the Coast Guard Administration said it had not rejected the ministry’s offer and that the two agencies were in communication over the matter.
Also yesterday, the ministry said the navy’s friendship fleet, which is on its annual foreign tour, stopped by Taiping Island on Wednesday as it was sailing to the South China Sea.
Several fleet officials disembarked on the island to meet with coast guard officials, it said.
Local media said the move by the navy was meant to highlight Taiwan’s sovereignty over the island, which is also claimed by China, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The friendship fleet returned to Greater Kaohsiung last night.
Meanwhile, a Chinese rescue ship arrived in Taiwan on Saturday, making it the first Chinese government-owned vessel of its kind to visit Taiwan in more than 60 years, an official said yesterday.
The 5,000-tonne Dong Hai Jiu 113 sailed from Fujian to Taichung Harbor on Saturday.
“The port call is expected to further understanding between Taiwan and the mainland [China],” said Ying Liu-sheng, secretary-general to the Chinese Search and Rescue Association, a Taipei-based civil body and the host of the trip.
Closer cooperation is needed as maritime accidents have been on the rise because of increasing traffic across the Taiwan Strait, he said.
The ship — the first Chinese search-and-rescue vessel to come to Taiwan in decades—is also scheduled to visit Greater Kaohsiung, Hualien and Keelung before it leaves on May 10.
The symbolic visit comes after Taiwan and China staged their biggest ever joint maritime search and rescue drill off the outlying island of Kinmen in September last year.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition