Beijing has never given up on the potential of uniting Taiwan with China by force and its national defense funding continues to grow yearly, Minister of National Defense Kao Kuang-chi (高廣圻) said in a report to be submitted to the Legislative Yuan.
Reporting on the development of cross-strait affairs, Kao said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has continued to modernize its military as well as reinforce its combat capability against Taiwan by improving its military command structure, replacing outdated equipment and stepping up training for its armed forces.
The report came in light of recent cross-strait talks over the M503 flight path — which runs along the middle of the Taiwan Strait, with feeder routes to China labeled W121, W122 and W123 — arbitrarily announced by China in January. Taiwanese officials said that the path could affect security for flights to Kinmen County and Lienchiang County.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force and Navy have also begun air and sea drills in the western Pacific to familiarize its forces with anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategies, Kao said.
All of this is evidence that Beijing has not given up the thought of unification through force, Kao said.
The Ministry of National Defense is monitoring the Taiwan Strait and the actions of the PLA, Kao said, adding that the ministry would also keep apprised of international territorial affairs.
Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said that at last count, the CCP controlled seven known shoals and islands in the Spratly Islands, known in Taiwan as the Nansha Islands (南沙群島).
The largest of the seven — Fiery Cross Reef (Yongshu Reef, 永暑島) — is at least three times larger than Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島), the largest naturally occurring islands in the Spratly group after being made five times larger by landfills, Lin said.
With the island now 2,000m long, it is considered eligible for the construction of an airfield, Lin said.
Though Vietnam has not used landfill methods to enlarge the Sandy Cay (Duncian Shajou, 敦謙沙洲) and Namyit Island (Hongsiou Island, 鴻庥島), 6 and 12 nautical miles (11km to 22km) from Itu Aba Island respectively, there are signs of the Vietnamese government increasing their artillery deployed on both islands, Lin said.
However, the Vietnamese military is reclaiming land and expanding Sin Cowe Island (Jinghong Island 景宏島) — 30 nautical miles from Itu Aba Island — which is now roughly the size of 130 basketball courts, Lin said, adding that there was a possibility that Vietnam would begin constructing piers capable of berthing large ships.
Vietnam is posing a considerable threat to Taiwan’s lone garrison in the South China Sea, Lin said.
Construction of piers on Itu Aba Island is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year and would offer berthing of frigate-class ships of up to 3,000 tonnes, Lin said.
With both the CCP and Vietnam stepping up the scale of their military bases in the region, the need to extend the Itu Aba Island airstrip is becoming more urgent, Lin said, calling on the ministry to begin the extension as soon as the piers have been finished.
Lin also said the ministry should consider moving regular troops onto the island to oversee its defenses. The nation pulled marines from the island and turned over garrison duty to the Coast Guard Administration in 2000.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS