The Ministry of National Defense yesterday rebutted a magazine report that the government had decided to deploy missiles on Taiping Island (太平島) in the South China Sea and to re-station military personnel there.
In a statement, the ministry said the report in the latest issue of the Chinese-language Next Magazine claiming the National Security Council had made such a decision was “not true.”
The council has no plans for any such moves, the statement said.
The South China Sea is an area beset by tension because of -sovereignty disputes over the small islands and atolls that dot the region. The area, thought to be rich in oil deposits and marine biodiversity, is claimed either entirely or in part by Taiwan, Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
There have been discussions in Taiwan recently on whether the country should strengthen its defensive presence in the region, as China, Vietnam and the Philippines have all been increasing their military deployments there.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) and National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai De-sheng (蔡得勝) have expressed support for measures to enhance Taiwan’s defenses on Taiping, the largest islet in the disputed Spratly Islands (南沙群島), and on Dongsha Islands (東沙群島).
At present there are no military personnel stationed there and the islands are manned by Coast Guard Administration staff.
Some of the measures proposed by lawmakers to safeguard the nation’s territory in the region include deploying short-range surface--to-air missiles and replacing the coast guard personnel with marines.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai