Minister of National Defense Yen Ming (嚴明) yesterday traveled to Itu Aba (Taiping Island, 太平島) aboard a C-130 military transport airplane for an inspection tour.
Itu Aba, controlled by Taiwan, is the largest of the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) in the disputed South China Sea, where claimants include Vietnam, China and the Philippines.
Yen was accompanied by Coast Guard Administration Minister Wang Ginn-wang (王進旺), Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉), People First Party Legislator Thomas Lee (李桐豪), Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Major General David Lo (羅紹和) and other officials.
It was Yen’s first visit to Itu Aba since he took office in August last year.
A government press release said the visit was meant to enhance Taiwan’s sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, and the nation is committed to bolstering the island’s defense capability and upgrading its military installations.
After arriving at about 11:50am, Yen and his entourage were briefed by the officers leading the garrison, comprised of about 100 coast guard troops, stationed on the remote military outpost.
The troops then carried out short training exercises and artillery drills, including operating the 40mm artillery guns and 120mm mortars that form part of the island’s defense installations.
In the early afternoon, the officials inspected the island’s port and other facilities to monitor the progress of an ongoing NT$3.3 billion (US$110 million) construction project that includes the expansion of port facilities to accommodate armed naval vessels of up to 3,000 tonnes and the reinforcement of an airstrip for military transport aircraft.
They also inspected the island’s meteorological observatory and its power station, which runs on solar energy.
The officials returned to Taiwan proper late in the afternoon and landed at an air force base on the outskirts of Pingtung.
The tour was made at the request of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, where legislators from across party lines agreed to strengthen the island’s defensive capability and increase the number of troops stationed there.
According to Chiu, who chairs the committee, Taiwan must enhance its military presence and upgrade its firepower on Itu Aba.
“We have seen lots of activity in the area by China and Vietnam in recent years, where they are undertaking major land reclamations and construction projects on the islets and reefs that they have occupied,” he said.
“Taiping Island is very far away from Taiwan, so we must be more proactive to build up our defenses there... If China or another country were to mount a surprise attack, it would be very difficult for our troops there to defend the island,” Chiu said.
Senior military brass are weighing various options to bolster the island’s military hardware, such as stationing one of the nation’s new 3,000-tonne coast guard cutters there to patrol the surrounding marine areas.
Legislators have called for the deployment of short-range anti-aircraft missiles on the island, and possibly installing US-made Sea Chaparral surface-to-air missiles.
Taiwan’s plan to conduct military drills on Itu Aba has drawn a sharp response from Vietnam, which calls it Ba Binh Island.
On Monday, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwanese military activity on the island “threatens peace, stability, maritime security and safety, and further complicates the East Sea issue,” using the Vietnamese name for the South China Sea.
Vietnam said it firmly opposes the drills and demanded that Taiwan immediately put an end to the “illegitimate act and prevent similar occurrences.”
BILINGUAL ASSISTANCE: The center launched a chat bot that features Chinese and English interfaces to provide foreigners with instant information about the pandemic The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that it would discuss with other nations the possibility of allowing businesspeople to visit on a case-by-case basis. Asked about loosening border restrictions, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said at the daily CECC news briefing that while the center is cautious about opening the nation’s borders, it would aim to diminish obstacles for important trade interactions without risking transmission of the novel coronavirus. Several foreign representatives in Taiwan have expressed an interest in the matter and the center would conduct related negotiations with the help of the
DELUSIONAL: The male patient said he did not know that the woman had mental problems, but the court said that her being restrained in isolation should have given him pause The Taiwan High Court has ordered the Jhudong branch of the Taiwan National University Hospital and a male patient to jointly pay a former female patient’s family NT$400,000 in compensation after the man had sex with the woman, who has mental problems, while hospitalized. The 26-year-old woman has been diagnosed with a mental disorder, a symptom of which is that she obsessively seeks to have sex, her mother said. The mother filed a formal complaint and sought damages from the hospital and the male patient surnamed Chen (陳) after finding out that her daughter had sex with the man while
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) should not use the government’s disease-prevention policy as an excuse to block people’s access to the Taipei Railway Station’s main hall, the Taiwan International Workers’ Association said yesterday. The association held a protest at the station after what organizers said were about 400 people staged a sit-in on Saturday to demonstrate against the TRA’s proposal to ban sitting on the floor of the main hall. In accordance with the Central Epidemic Command Center’s disease-prevention measures, large gatherings have been banned in the hall since the end of February. After protesters yesterday expressed their grievances at the southern
Nematode-trapping fungi have been found to be natural killers of nematodes and their mechanisms might facilitate the development of new drugs or biological control agents, an Academia Sinica researcher said yesterday. Mostly measuring less than 1mm, nematodes are found in soil worldwide and most are not visible to the naked eye, Academia Sinica Institute of Molecular Biology assistant research fellow Hsueh Yen-ping (薛雁冰) told a news conference in Taipei. Some nematodes can cause infections in humans or damage plants, but existing pesticides, such as ivermectin, aldicarb and levamisole, can only inhibit their activity and the poisons’ efficacy are declining due to
RSS