Taiwan has informed neighboring countries that it plans to conduct a live-fire training exercise on Taiping Island (太平島) in the South China Sea early next month, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Steve Hsia (夏季昌) said yesterday.
It will be a routine drill, Hsia said, confirming local media reports that the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) is scheduled to carry out a live-fire exercise from Sept. 1 through Sept. 5 on Taiping to reinforce Taiwan’s claim to the South China Sea area.
The ministry has informed neighboring countries of the plan, in line with international practice, Hsia said.
“It means those countries will be able to warn their ships to avoid the waters near Taiping Island during the exercise,” he said.
The Ministry of National Defense delivered a shipment of 40mm anti-aircraft guns and 120mm mortars to Taiping earlier this month to help the coast guard reinforce defenses there amid escalating territorial disputes in the region.
While installation of the new weapons has since begun, they will not be used in the upcoming drill, officials familiar with the matter said.
Meanwhile, ruling and opposition lawmakers will embark on an inspection tour of Taiping in the first half of next month, the officials said.
Covering an area of 0.49km2, Taiping lies about 1,600km southwest of Greater Kaohsiung. It is the largest isle in the Spratly Island (南沙群島) chain.
In the dispute over territorial claims to the area, Vietnam recently protested against Taiwan’s defense reinforcement on Taiping, saying that the move was an encroachment on its sovereignty over the Spratlys.
However, the foreign ministry said Vietnam’s protest was unjustified because Taiping has long been under Taiwan’s effective control and management.
“Our sovereignty over the island is undisputable and all of our activities and deployments on the island are legal and will never cause regional tensions,” the foreign ministry said in a recent statement.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.