The government would mount an iron-clad defense of the nation’s sovereignty and its people’s safety, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday after a Chinese warplane breached the nation’s air defense identification zone on Thursday night.
The warplane entered the nation’s southwestern air space twice, at 7:35pm and 7:36pm, and the Republic of China Air Force dispatched an aircraft to shadow and evict it after broadcasting a warning, the Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday.
The incident marked a rare occurrence of a Chinese warplane entering the zone after nightfall.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The ministry on March 17 said that two Chinese aircraft on March 16 conducted a night-time drill near Taiwan’s southwestern airspace.
China is experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19 and heavy floods, but Beijing is not concentrating its energy on taking care of its people, Su said on the sidelines of an event in Taipei.
Instead it is sending warplanes to disrupt regional peace and put pressure on neighboring nations, which have condemned its actions, he said.
Taiwan, as a sovereign nation, would resolutely defend its airspace and protect its people, he said.
He urged Beijing to concentrate on caring for its people, rather than disturbing regional peace.
A military observer in southern Taiwan surnamed Hsu (許) said that Chinese aircraft have intruded into the nation’s airspace at least 20 times this year.
Thursday’s action was likely triggered by the six recent incidents involving E-8C battle command aircraft from the US flying over the Taiwan Strait, as well as large-scale military drills that the US and its allies have been conducting in the South China Sea, Hsu said.
CAUTION URGED: Strong winds and heavy rain are forecast throughout the nation, even though the CWB was not sure whether the eye would make landfall in Taiwan The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Chanthu, as it continued to gain power while approaching Taiwan from the southeast. As of 8pm last night, Chanthu was about 410km southeast of Pingtung County’s Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost point of Taiwan proper, moving northwest at 15kph toward the Bashi Channel. The typhoon had maximum sustained winds of 209kph, with gusts of up to 263kph, bureau data showed. Chanthu, which is likely to come closest to the nation over the weekend, could pose a threat throughout Taiwan proper, but particularly in Taitung and Pingtung, the bureau said. Strong winds and heavy
CLOSED FOR DISINFECTION: Two of the three local cases were linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten, while the other case works at a McDonald’s restaurant The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported three new local COVID-19 infections and 11 imported cases, but no deaths. The local cases are two men and a woman aged between 20 and 80 who reside in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, the CECC said in a news release. Two of them are linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋), said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman. He said they are both associated with the mother of a kindergarten student, who was earlier confirmed to have
BIOLOGICAL AGENT: A containment exercise was held in southern Tainan, in response to a mock assault where troops were assumed to be attacked by bioweapons The live-fire component of this year’s annual Han Kuang military exercises, Taiwan’s major war games involving all military branches, began yesterday morning and is to run until Friday to test the armed forces’ capability to fend off a Chinese invasion. The 37th edition of the annual event officially began after the Ministry of National Defense’s Joint Operations Command Center, also known as the Hengshan Command Center, announced the initiation of the five-day live-fire drills. Yesterday’s drills were focused on testing the military’s preservation and maintenance of combat capabilities in the event of a full-scale Chinese invasion. As part of the drills, air force
‘RAISING TAIWAN’S VISIBILITY’: Premier Su Tseng-chang said changing TECRO’s name to include ‘Taiwan’ would make the representative office more recognizable The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday declined comment on a Financial Times report that the name of Taiwan’s representative office in Washington might be changed, saying only that bolstering and upgrading ties with the US has been the government’s long-term objective. The ministry made the comments after the UK-based newspaper reported on that US President Joe Biden’s administration is considering allowing the government to use the word “Taiwan” in the office’s title. The US is “seriously considering a request from Taiwan to change the name of its mission in the US capital from ‘Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office’ [TECRO] to ‘Taiwan
RSS