The USS Mustin, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, sailed through the Taiwan Strait yesterday, the 12th time this year that a US warship transited the waterway.
The US 7th Fleet said in a statement that the Mustin conducted a routine transit in accordance with international law.
“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows,” the statement read.
Photo: EPA/EFE
The Ministry of National Defense said that the US vessel entered the Strait from the north and headed south.
Taiwan University associate professor of political science Chen Shih-min (陳世民) said that the US Navy is conducting warship transits through the Strait to support freedom of navigation in waters near Taiwan and its national security.
The transits show that the US would not tolerate China’s behavior of circling Taiwan’s territorial waters and airspace with warships and military aircraft, or its attempt to transform the Strait into Chinese territory, he said.
US warships sailed through the Strait nine times last year.
Institute for National Defense and Security Research assistant research fellow Jeremy Hung (洪子傑) said that the higher number of US transits this year reflects the US-China competition for influence in the region.
“In addition to warships, US military aircraft have also carried out more fly-bys in the airspace [around Taiwan] with their IFF [identification friend or foe] systems turned on, a move that is calculated to telegraph their presence to other countries and send a political message,” he said.
The previous time a US warship navigated the Strait was on Nov. 21.
The US 7th Fleet in a Facebook post the same day identified the ship as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Barry.
“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The US Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows,” the post said.
“The United States and Taiwan are strong partners in defending freedom, advancing economic ties, and promoting our shared democratic values. The American Institute in Taiwan Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue strengthens our economic relationship even further,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter the same day.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue
RSS