Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday said the nation’s military installations on Taiping Island (太平島, Itu Aba Island) are vulnerable to intelligence gathering by a China-linked transport ship that has defied maritime regulations that require it to report its position when entering Taiwan’s near-shore waters.
Kuan told the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday that Hua Yun No. 12 entered Kaohsiung Harbor on Oct. 3, then headed up the coast to Greater Tainan’s Anping Port on Oct. 8.
“However, since Oct. 8, the ship had turned off its Automatic Identification System [AIS] to avoid reporting its location. This violates maritime regulations,” Kuan said, demanding that the government immediately expel the ship from the nation’s waters.
AIS is a tracking system used to identify and locate vessels by electronically exchanging data with other nearby ships, AIS base stations and satellites.
“The transportation ministry did not track the ship’s passage and even allowed it to travel within the nation’s near-shore waters to break our maritime law at will,” she said.
“The government was unaware of the ship’s movement and unable to act. Its screws are all loose and it has fallen apart,” she added.
The ship was reportedly hired by East Pi Builds Co of Greater Kaohsiung, which secured a NT$3.37 billion (US$110 million) government project to build a wharf on Taiping Island.
Kuan initially raised the security issue on Oct. 10.
“At the time, transport ministry officials said Hua Yun No. 12 would leave for Russia on Oct. 11 and would not participate in the Taiping Island project,” she said. “This ship is still in Anping Port and has changed its departure to this afternoon. The port data log also records it as a Republic of China ship.”
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Maritime and Port Bureau head Chi Wen-chong (祁文中) said that although the ship is Chinese-owned, it is contracted to a Hong Kong firm and registered in Cambodia.
“Therefore, we had problems with its proper identification. Turning off its AIS has violated our regulations, so we will blacklist this vessel in the future,” he said.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS