Penghu County fishermen protested against a military exercise set for this week by sailing 26 fishing boats into a planned firing range off of Magong (馬公).
The area’s residents and local fishermen’s association organized the marine blockade on Wednesday, the first day of the live-fire drill conducted by the Penghu Defense Command, in prelude to training for the Han Kuang military exercises, which are due to take place this year from Monday through Friday next week.
Fishermen spokesperson Chen Chang-ming (陳長明) said that they wanted to protest against the destruction of marine habitats and the killing of fishery stock by explosions of military ordnance, as well as draw attention to damage to buildings from blast-related shock waves.
“Past military exercises have caused extensive damage to the Heavenly God Temple, which is the major worship center for residents around here, which has had to be reconstructed about every 10 years,” Chen said.
Sailing 26 boats into the firing range off Shanshui Beach, the fishermen stifled the planned military exercise.
Wu Yuan-li (吳遠里), head of Penghu Defense Command’s Political Warfare Department, said due to the protest, the drill was conducted without live firing of ordinance and no blasts occurred.
“We also scaled down the drill, cutting down from a five-day drill to three days, and from a two-hour exercise to just one,” Wu added.
Chen said that the fishermen had requested compensation for the damage to the temple, but have yet to receive a definitive answer, so residents have decided to protest indefinitely and to blockade nearby areas during future military exercises.
In response, Wu said the Penghu Defense Command had allocated NT$2 million (US$66,000) as a ‘community charity fund’ to benefit residents,” an amount that has been increased to NT$4 million this year.
“As for the temple’s rebuilding plan, we are unable to provide any financial support, because it falls outside the scope of the community charity fund’s intended purpose,” Wu said.
“We will continue to speak with the local residents and fishermen. We hope they can support the staging of military exercises in the area,” Wu added.
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
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
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard