The government is on alert as tensions between China and Vietnam are again on the rise due to Beijing’s unilateral decision to resume the installation of oil rigs in the South China Sea, officials said yesterday.
Taiwanese businesses with investments in Vietnam are afraid of a repeat of the anti-China riots in May last year, officials said.
Riots broke out when China moved the Haiyang Shiyou 981 near the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) in May last year, which the Vietnamese government protested as a violation of Vietnamese territorial claims, while China said the move was legal as the islands were under its military control.
Many Taiwanese businesses in Vietnam suffered break-ins and robberies, as well as arson due to anti-Chinese sentiment.
Taiwan also claims sovereignty of the Paracel Islands in the dispute over maritime boundaries and territories in the South China Sea.
According to a report on Huanqiu.com yesterday, which is owned by the Chinese Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily, the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration announced on Thursday that from now until Aug. 20 it would be deploying oil rigs in the South China Sea.
The announcement was accompanied by a demand for unrelated ships to maintain a distance of 2km from the oil rigs.
The Haiyang Shiyou 981 is to be deployed to 17o 3.75 minutes north latitude and 109o 59.05 minutes east longitude, according to the administration’s Web site on Thursday.
Taiwanese officials said the location is southeast of the Chinese city of Sanya in Hainan Province and east of the Vietnamese city of Hue, adding that it was slightly northwest of the location that caused last year’s riots.
The officials said they expect the announcement to cause a strong reaction in Vietnam, and due to concerns for citizens abroad as well as the potential impacts to Taiwanese claims in the region, the government has ordered all foreign ministry officials to be on standby in the event of protests.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS