The government is considering dispatching navy warships to protect long-distance fishing boats from Somali pirates, Samuel Chen (陳士良), director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of African Affairs, said yesterday.
Referring to intergovernmental coordination meetings held to discuss an anti-piracy mechanism following an incident in which a Taiwanese skipper on a hijacked fishing boat was killed in May, Chen said that provided “technical difficulties” were resolved, navy ships could provide security for Taiwanese fishing vessels off the coast of Africa.
Chen denied politics or opposition from Beijing had been involved in the decision on whether to station a naval fleet near the Somali coast.
“The [China] factor hasn’t been relevant in our thinking on measures to better protect our fishermen,” he said.
The main problem in dispatching naval frigates to Somalia is one of logistics, Chen said.
Several countries have dispatched warships to the waters off Somalia, particularly along the strategic shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden, to try to deter piracy.
Despite appeals from fishermen and lawmakers to send warships, the government has been hesitant to formulate a plan.
“For Taiwan, the hindrance lies in the reality that it’s not easy to anchor our warships close to the shore and get the necessary supplies because of the lack of diplomatic relations with countries nearby and the sensitive nature of warships,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
Ministry of National Defense spokesperson David Lo (羅紹和) said by telephone that the navy was capable of sending warships to carry out counter-piracy and counterterrorism measures on the high seas, as it had the means and personnel to do so.
“Having warships anchored at harbors in countries that are not our diplomatic allies remains a problem though,” Lo said.
In related developments, Chen said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been informed by American Institute in Taiwan Director William Stanton that the US would release by the middle of this month a report on the death of Wu Lai-yu (吳來于), the Taiwanese captain of the Jih Chun Tsai No. 68, who was killed in crossfire between a US warship participating in counter-piracy operations and Somali pirates on May 11.
Fishermen are angry about the incident, not only because of their vulnerability in distant waters, but also the way it has been handled by the US, including the burial of Wu’s body at sea before his family had been consulted.
In a letter dated June 21 addressed to Wu’s family, US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell expressed his sincere condolences and said he was deeply saddened to hear about the incident, Chen said.
Meanwhile, Chen confirmed that the ministry had failed to detect the whereabouts of a Taiwanese longliner that was hijacked by Somali pirates in waters near Madagascar in December.
The pirates and the fishing boat owner have disagreed on several occasions on the amount of the ransom, he said.
There were 26 people on board the Greater Kaohsiung-based Hsiuh Fu No. 1 — a Taiwanese skipper, 12 Chinese and 13 Vietnamese crewmen.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS