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.
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
RSS