The government plans to add a lighthouse to Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島), part of the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) in the South China Sea, where it is expanding a runway and building a port.
“The light it provides will launch the South China Sea Peace Initiative,” an official familiar with the government’s South China Sea policies said.
The official, who requested anonymity, said the design and construction of the lighthouse by CECI Engineering Consultants Inc Taiwan (台灣世曦工程顧問公司) was commissioned by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, which would verify that the work is on schedule in July next year, or in 2016, if construction is delayed.
Photo: Tsao Po-Yen, Taipei Times
The project’s completion would be significant, the official said, and a ceremony would take place.
The possibility of “President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) attending the ceremony on the island in person” is not excluded, the source said.
The official also said that as China, Vietnam and the Philippines all have competing claims in the area, with some fairly close to the site, the height and “nominal range” of the lighthouse would be adjusted according to suggestions from relevant agencies, to avoid provocation.
Photo: CNA
China decided to build lighthouses on five reefs in the disputed Spratlys and the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), this year, which the US called threatening.
Taiwan is developing infrastructure, said the official, which includes improving runways to accommodate C-130 transport and P-3C marine patrol aircraft.
As for construction of the port, the ships rented to transport caissons and concrete structures to anchor the wharf were found to be Chinese-owned, which sparked controversy and in the end caused the transportation of materials to be halted. However, the ministry has been considering other alternatives and plans to restart and complete the port’s construction as soon as possible.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said the decision to erect a lighthouse on Itu Aba Island was an olive branch to neighboring countries, a declaration of peace, since a lighthouse would have a positive effect on rescue efforts at sea.
While there are more Philippine and Vietnamese vessels than Taiwanese in the waters near Itu Aba Island, the lighthouse is a political move calling for peace, he said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said that the decision to build the lighthouse was also a political message.
As the nation has Coast Guard Administration personnel stationed on the island, it is important to ensure sovereignty over the island, Chiu said, adding that he hoped the Ma administration would propose concrete measures to provide sufficient manpower, equipment and logistical support to maintain defenses on the island.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS