The Ministry of National Defense (MND) was noncommittal yesterday in the face of demands from lawmakers to send troops to Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島), the the largest of the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) in the South China Sea.
Lawmakers, including Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲), proposed at a budget review that the government should send marines to the island in the wake of an international court ruling earlier this year that refused to recognize the nation’s sovereignty and downgraded the island to a rock.
The ministry declined to support the proposal, saying that the Coast Guard Administration is responsible for patrolling the island, though the military could do more to improve its supply capabilities.
The ministry said that decisions on troop deployments are a matter of policymaking at the highest level of government.
In July, The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration declared the “nine-dash line” that underpins Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea to be invalid.
The court also declared all high-tide features in the Spratly Islands, including Taiwan-controlled Itu Aba, to be “rocks” and not islands, a difference in terminology that denies them the right to an exclusive economic zone.
Taipei rejected the ruling and said it is not legally binding, and reiterated its sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their surrounding waters.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
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