Navy and Coast Guard Administration (CGA) personnel conducted a joint drill yesterday in waters south of Taiwan to show the government’s determination to protect Taiwanese fishermen operating there, following the killing of fisherman Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成) by Philippine Coast Guard personnel in waters where the exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines overlap.
The drill saw navy and CGA personnel demonstrating cooperation in maritime rescue operations and protecting Taiwan’s fishing rights.
Before the drill, the warship Ma Kong, a Kidd-class destroyer, also crossed the 20° north latitude line, in waters near the location of the shooting.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
It was the first time the 10,500 tonne warship had entered the area to assist the CGA in guarding Taiwanese fishermen, the navy said.
The CGA said it usually goes as far south as 20° north to protect local fishing boats.
That boundary may now change.
Two other military vessels — both Lafayette-class frigates — also took part in the drill.
The exercise included a simulation of an operation in which an S-70C rescue helicopter was dispatched from Taiwan to airlift a fisherman following a man overboard emergency. The drill also incorporated an anti-submarine S-70C helicopter from one of the frigates, which conducted a patrol mission. Two Mirage 2000-5 jet fighters were also deployed from the Hsinchu Airbase to take part in the exercise.
The navy said it has beefed up its protection of Taiwanese fishermen operating in the area by sending more frigates and expanding the area of their patrols.
The CGA has also dispatched more vessels to patrol the area. The Kidd-class destroyer and one of the Lafayette-class frigates set sail on Wednesday from Greater Kaohsiung to take part in the exercise.
After the joint drill with the CGA, the destroyer went ahead with its own exercises, which included a simulated launch of two surface-to-air Standard Missile-2 it had on board.
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
GROUNDED: A KMT lawmaker proposed eliminating drone development programs and freezing funding for counterdrone systems, despite China’s adoption of the technology China has deployed attack drones at air bases near the Taiwan Strait in a strategy aimed at overwhelming Taiwan’s air defense systems through saturation attacks, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. The council’s latest quarterly report on China said that satellite imagery and open-source intelligence indicate that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had converted retired J-6 fighter jets into J-6W drones, which the PLA has stationed at six air bases near Taiwan, five in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province. The report cited J. Michael Dahm, a senior fellow at the US-based Mitchell Institute, as saying that China has
Carrefour Taiwan is to begin using a new name from the start of July, but it cannot divulge the name until then, the chairman of the supermarket chain's parent company said today. President Chain Store Co chairman Lo Chih-hsien (羅智先) was asked by reporters after a shareholders' meeting to confirm whether the company has settled on a new name for the supermarket brand. In March, the government-registered name of two Carrefour Taiwan branches was quietly changed to "Le Chia Kang" (樂家康) in Chinese, raising speculation that has been selected as the name. Lo said that because of local regulations and contractual obligations, the
RSS